Matagorda, Texas
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1974. It stands in the Matagorda-Sargent census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77457. It lies near Baxter Island. The Survey maps it on the Matagorda quadrangle. 313 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7 feet above sea level.
On record in Matagorda
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Christ Episcopal Churchlisted 2012
Matagorda Cemeterylisted 2006
Population over time
2 figuresMatagorda fell from 503 to 313 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 503 | |
| 2020 | 313 | -190 (-38%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1951 USGS Bay City quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS Matagorda quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Bay City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Bay City quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Bay City quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
16 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Matagorda between 2018 and 2020, burning about 96 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE COUNTY DUMP |
| 30 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 17 August 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | TROPICAL MANIAC PALM TREE FIRE |
| 16 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 16 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | LEVEE GRASS FIRE |
| 13 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 4 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | ICW GRASS FIRE |
| 26 July 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | RIVER BEND RD GRASS FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Matagorda in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 4 flash flood, 2 funnel cloud, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2007 | Lightning | Matagorda | 1 hurt | A 52 year old male was struck by lightning and injured while lying on the beach a few miles southwest of the Colorado River mouth. |
| September 2003 | Flash Flood | Matagorda | $30,000 | Flooding in and around Matagorda, three homes flooded on South 60. |
| October 1996 | Flash Flood | Matagorda | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Matagorda | $10,000 | Army Corps of Engineers reported a large waterspout moved onshore near the Matagorda Locks and lifted trees. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Matagorda | $5,000 | Trees were blown over in a residential neighborhood in Matagorda. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Matagorda | - | Wind gust occurred at the East Matagorda TCOON site. |
| July 2008 | Funnel Cloud | Matagorda | - | The outer rain bands of Hurricane Dolly produced a funnel cloud that was sighted close to the intersection of the Colorado River and the Intracoastal Waterway. |
| July 2008 | Funnel Cloud | Matagorda | - | The funnel cloud was sighted just west of the intersection of the Colorado River and the Intracoastal Waterway. |
| July 2007 | Flash Flood | Matagorda | - | SH 60 near Matagorda, along with secondary roads off of FM 521, in the southern part of the county are impassable due to water over the roadways. |
| June 2006 | Flash Flood | Matagorda | - | Highway 60 was impassable due to flood waters. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf | 4.5 miles | 9 | |
| Gulf Hill | 5.0 miles | 8 | |
| Citrus Grove | 8.3 miles | 8 | |
| Wadsworth | 9.9 miles | 8 | |
| Simpsonville | 10.5 miles | 8 | |
| Tin Top | 10.5 miles | 8 | |
| Collegeport | 11.3 miles | 9 | |
| Chinquapin | 11.3 miles | 7 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Matagorda | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q982375 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1362277. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.




