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| Aerial
view of Del Rio, 1939
Most of these buildings are extant today.
Note Courthouse in background.
Old Postcard, TE Archives | |
The
Naming of Del Rio & Val Verde
Val Verde is named
after the Battle of Val Verde from the Civil War; the only Texas County named
after a battle. San Felipe del Rio was Del Rio's "birth name" because the founding
occurred on St. Phillip's Day. |
Del
Rio HistoryFrom
Handbook of Texas Online
"Del
Rio, the county seat of Val Verde County, is on U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern
Pacific Railroad near the confluence of the Rio Grande and San Felipe Creek, 154
miles west of San Antonio in the southern part of the county. The Spanish established
a small presidial complex near the site of present Ciudad Acuña, the Mexican sister
city of Del Rio, and some Spaniards settled on what became the United States side
of the Rio Grande. The developments that led to the growth of Del Rio, however,
took place after the Civil War. In the arid vastness of Southwest Texas, water
was the key to survival; in the vicinity of Del Rio the San Felipe Springs provided
millions of gallons. A number of developers acquired several thousand acres adjacent
to San Felipe Creek and developed plans to sell small tracts of rich farmland
to prospective buyers. These investors formed the San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing,
and Irrigation Company in 1868. The organization soon constructed a network of
irrigationqv canals, completed in 1871. Soon they began to sell small tracts of
land to newly arriving settlers, who then established truck farms...." more,
see Handbook of Texas Online
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/DD/hed3.html |
| Recommended
Books |
| Del
Rio: Queen City of the Rio Grande (The Making of America) |
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