Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of farmland and woods along the Brazos River where Port Sullivan stood

River and lake town · Farm and ranch town

Port Sullivan

A river port with a college and over 1,400 people in 1870. The railroads went to Hearne and Calvert instead, and twenty years later the town had vanished.

30°51′58″N 96°41′44″W · ≈230 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Cemetery only · 2008 marker

Nothing of the town stands. The state marker placed at the Port Sullivan Cemetery in 2008 says the cemetery is the only landmark left, and that the San Andres Masonic Lodge of Cameron has cared for it since 2004. The Texas Historical Commission lists the marker as not on private property. The cemetery is north of FM 485 on a gravel road, just west of the Brazos. We found no visiting rules from the lodge, and we don't know who owns the land around it.

Overview

A steamboat port the railroads passed by

Port Sullivan stood on a low bluff on the Brazos in eastern Milam County, a mile northeast of today's Farm Road 485. Augustus W. Sullivan got title to the bluff in 1835. In 1843 the steamboat Mustang made it this far upriver, and in 1851 the first town lots were sold. A year later the town had about 200 people, four stores, a sawmill, warehouses and a post office.

It grew into a river port and a college town. Port Sullivan Male and Female College was open by 1860, and the 1870 census counted 1,423 people. But in 1869 the Houston and Texas Central reached Hearne and founded Calvert, which soon took the trade. In 1873 another railroad crossed the Brazos a few miles downstream. People moved to Gause, the college closed in the 1870s, and by the 1890s the town had disappeared.

A stone marker put up at the site in 1936 gave rise to a mistaken name, Fort Sullivan. The cemetery is the only landmark left.

Timeline

Boom and bust on the Brazos

  1. Augustus W. Sullivan gets title to a low bluff on the Brazos.
  2. The steamboat Mustang reaches the bluff and proves the river navigable this far.
  3. Two sons of planter Reuben Anderson buy the first town lots.
  4. About 200 people, four stores, a sawmill, warehouses and a post office.
  5. Port Sullivan Male and Female College is open. The town has 680 people.
  6. The Houston and Texas Central reaches Hearne and founds Calvert, which takes Port Sullivan's trade.
  7. The census counts 1,423 people. The Handbook of Texas thinks the peak came just before, in the late 1860s.
  8. The International railroad crosses the Brazos a few miles downstream. People move to Gause.
  9. 123 people. The college has closed.
  10. The town is gone.
  11. The Army Corps of Engineers builds concrete locks in the river near the site. They now stand abandoned.
  12. Fifteen people live in the rural area.

What's here

A cemetery and a lock

The 1962 USGS Gause sheet marks a lock in the Brazos just north of the FM 485 bridge
The 1962 USGS Gause sheet marks a lock in the Brazos just north of the FM 485 bridge · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain

The Port Sullivan Cemetery lies north of FM 485, just west of the Brazos, at the end of a gravel road. Abandoned concrete locks, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1910 and 1920, remain in the river near the old townsite. Nothing of the town's buildings or the college survives.

The Texas Historical Commission put up a marker at the cemetery in 2008. It says the cemetery is the only landmark left of the town and that the San Andres Masonic Lodge No. 170 of Cameron has cared for the burial ground since 2004. The commission made it a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2006 and counts about 200 graves.

  • Port Sullivan Cemetery
  • 2008 state marker at the cemetery
  • Concrete locks in the Brazos (1910–1920)
  • 1936 stone marker (last reported in 1968)
USGS topographic map of the Brazos River near Port Sullivan
USGS The National Map, topo. The site is by the Brazos north of FM 485.
Aerial view of farm fields and woods along a river
Aerial imagery, same area. Fields and river woods where the town stood.

Historic maps

Port Sullivan on USGS maps, 1954–1993

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Port Sullivan, 1954
Austin sheet, 1954, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Port Sullivan is off FM 485 west of Hearne, the closest town. The route ends on FM 485; the cemetery is on a gravel road to the north.

Topographic map from Hearne west to Port Sullivan, with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Hearne7.4 miabout 13 min
  1. From downtown Hearne, head south on South Market Street, US 79 and TX 6.1.4 mi
  2. Turn left onto FM 485 and follow it west across the Brazos to the site.6.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • FM 485 is paved. The Handbook of Texas puts the cemetery on a gravel road north of it; an undated listing rates the drive 2WD.
  • The state lists the 2008 cemetery marker as not on private property. We don't know who owns the land around the cemetery, so respect any gates or signs.

Photos

Have photos of Port Sullivan?

We haven’t added more photographs of Port Sullivan yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Port Sullivan?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

River and lake

More river and lake ghost towns

The nearest in Texas.

The replica of Independence Hall, a plain gray clapboard building under oak trees, with a stone obelisk on the lawn beside itGuide

Washington-on-the-Brazos

30.33, -96.16

Washington County, Texas

The town where Texas declared independence in 1836 and later a capital of the Republic. It turned down the railroad in 1858, and by 1889 most of it…

State historic siteRiver and lake
Two 1852 watercolors of Indianola: a wharf, sailing ships and wooden buildings above the beach, and below, the town seen across flat marshlandGuide

Indianola

28.51, -96.49

Calhoun County, Texas

Texas's second port, where German immigrants and the Army's camels came ashore. Two hurricanes destroyed it, and most of the townsite now lies under…

Mostly under the bayRiver and lake

All 58 river and lake ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Port Sullivan

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Texas index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Handbook of Texas Online, "Port Sullivan, TX": location, founding, steamboat, college, population figures, railroads, decline, post offices, cemetery, locks, 1936 marker.
  2. Wikipedia, "Port Sullivan, Texas": founder, college, cemetery, coordinates (GNIS), and a 1968 Cameron Herald story reporting the marker and cemetery still there.
  3. ghosttowns.com, "Port Sullivan": fact-sheet fields (road, best time, climate, remains).
  4. Texas Historical Commission Atlas, "Port Sullivan Cemetery" (marker 14570, 2008), read October 22, 2026: the marker text, that the cemetery is the only landmark left, the Masonic lodge's care since 2004, the 2006 Historic Texas Cemetery designation, and the marker listed as not on private property.
  5. Texas Historical Commission Atlas, "Port Sullivan Cemetery" (cemetery MM-C061), read October 22, 2026: about 200 graves, burials from 1832 to the present, Historic Texas Cemetery designation of May 3, 2006.
  6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 22, 2026; we found no visiting rules for the cemetery.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 9
  • Coordinates
  • Founding and population
  • Post office history
  • Cemetery location
  • Historic maps, 1954–1993
  • Land ownership
  • Cemetery access
  • Photos of the site
  • Field report
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.