Val Verde County, Texas
Del Rio is home to 47 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
Formed from Crockett, Kinney and Pecos counties. Created March 24, 1885. Organized March 31, 1885. Named in honor of the battle fought at Val Verde, near Fort Craig, New Mexico, February 19, 1862. Del Rio, the county…
View on map ↗When U. S. troops were surrendered at outbreak of Civil War, camp became Confederate frontier outpost 1861-1862 to guard military road, escort supply trains, curb hostile Indians. Manned by 2nd Texas Cavalry. Texas…
View on map ↗Erected 1871, before Del Rio was founded, by John Perry, as General Store. Once the largest store between San Antonio and El Paso. Served also as courthouse, church, Masonic lodge, and post office. Given in 1965 to city…
View on map ↗Oasis for explorers, soldiers, freighters--from 1542 onward. In 1675 priests named the 7 Springs for King of Spain. In 18th century Comanches camped here on their war trail into Mexico. In 1808 a mission was established…
View on map ↗Marked completion of Southern Pacific Railway. Eastern part originated in Texas in 1850s; then was rechartered 1870 by Texas Legislature as Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Hwy., designed to join Houston and San…
View on map ↗The Chihuahua Road was a nineteenth-century lifeline that connected Chihuahua, Mexico, with the Texas port of Indianola. Opened to exploit rich trade in Mexican silver and gold, the road eventually carried every type of…
View on map ↗Born in Kentucky. A trader in Mexico, 1848. Mining in New Mexico when Civil War broke out. As spy and scout, joined Texans in the Command of Gen. John R. Baylor during the 1861-1862 Arizona-New Mexico Campaign.…
View on map ↗Known as Texas' oldest bonded winery; only survivor of about 25 once operated in the state. Founded by Frank Qualia, who came in 1882 to Del Rio (then a town of 200) from Milan, Italy. In 1883 he married Mary Frank.…
View on map ↗Crude irrigation systems, drawing water from San Felipe Springs and Creek, were first devised by Indian and Spanish inhabitants of this area. Anglo-American settlers also saw the need for irrigation in this arid region,…
View on map ↗Mass was celebrated in private homes and in a wooden house at this site before construction of this native Limestone church in 1891-92. Under the direction of the oblate fathers, the mission of Del Rio became Sacred…
View on map ↗A native of New York, local businessman James H. Mason (1835-1916) constructed his home here shortly after he purchased the site in 1887. He later developed a spring on the property for mineral baths and a medicinal…
View on map ↗A United State Army post was established in this area on September 6, 1876. Originally known as Camp San Felipe, it was an outpost of Fort Clark (28 mile E), one of a chain of military fortifications constructed to…
View on map ↗Organized in 1885 from sections of Crockett, Kinney, and Pecos Counties, Val Verde County was named for a Civil War battle in New Mexico which involved Texas Confederate Forces. The growing railroad town of Del Rio was…
View on map ↗In 1911, eight years after the Wright Brothers' historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Galbraith Perry Rodgers landed his plane at Del Rio while on the first transcontinental flight across the United State. The…
View on map ↗Italian Stonemason G.B. Cassinelli and his partner John Taini were recruited in their native county by an American contractor who wanted them to construct buildings in New York. Shortly after their arrival in the United…
View on map ↗James H. Taylor (d. 1876), one of the five founders of Del Rio, and his wife Paula (Losoya) (d.1902), a native of Mexico, moved here from Uvalde about 1870 and built this one-story adobe residence. A prominent landowner…
View on map ↗Local contractor Daniel Glenn built this residence in 1900-01, incorporating a band of decorative brickwork in the design. He sold the property in 1901 to Bessie Chisum, a widow who married Luke Dowe in 1906. Dowe had a…
View on map ↗Early land developer Paula Losoya Taylor Rivers (ca. 1830-1902) realized that the people of Del Rio's Mexican Colony had no official cemetery in which to bury their dead. She donated four acres to be designated as a…
View on map ↗High canyon walls dominate the last sixty miles of the Pecos River before it enters the Rio Grande. The Southern Pacific Railroad built the first high bridge across the Pecos River in 1891. The first highway bridge to…
View on map ↗City of Del Rio Del Rio was selected as Val Verde County seat when the county was organized in 1885, but it was another 20 years before the first city government was established. In 1905, city residents voted to…
View on map ↗On November 1, 1854, John Taini was born in Rezzato, Italy (near Brescia) to Gerolamo and Lucia Prandelli Taini. John later became a stonemason there, and an American contractor recruited him and his partner, G.B.…
View on map ↗Railroad Bridges Over the Pecos A major tributary of the Rio Grande, the Pecos River was long a barrier to transportation, particularly across the deep gorge that once marked its joining with the Rio Grande.…
View on map ↗U. S. Army Camel Corps The proposal to use camels for commerce and transportation in the arid southwest came about in the 1830s, but it was under U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis that the idea became a reality.…
View on map ↗This site was once farmland irrigated by Del Rio's canal system. Construction on this house began in the early 1930s. In 1934, infamous "goat-gland doctor" John R. Brinkley and his wife, Minnie (Jones), bought the home,…
View on map ↗North Carolina native John R. Brinkley (1885-1942) opened a medical clinic and radio station in Kansas and promoted controversial medical practices, including one that used goat gland implants to increase sexual "pep"…
View on map ↗Elks Lodge Hall Lodge 837 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks built this meeting hall in 1916 from plans provided by local builder Martin Brauer. It replaced an earlier structure, Gildea Hall, at this site.…
View on map ↗On May 24, 1896, Pastor Frank Marrs joined the Rev. and Mrs. Edwin S. Stucker as founding members of Del Rio's First Baptist Church. Marrs was from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky, and the Stuckers…
View on map ↗Founded in 1868 on the edge of the Chuhuahuan Desert and just three miles from the Rio Grande, Del Rio began as an agricultural community. Early residents had access to intermittent schooling opportunities for their…
View on map ↗In 1910, publishing titan William Randolph Hearst offered $50,000 to the first person to successfully complete a transcontinental flight across America in 30 days, with a stop in Chicago, Illinois. Adventurer and…
View on map ↗With the need to train more pilots for military service during World War II, the U.S. Army established an air field east of Del Rio in 1942. The region's year-round good weather and vast areas of open ground offered…
View on map ↗Born in Del Rio on Sept. 17, 1914, Jack Thomas Laughlin graduated from Del Rio High School and earned a degree from the University of Texas. In 1940, he joined the Army Air Corps and the following year received his…
View on map ↗The Edwards Plateau area of southwest Texas has long been associated with the sheep and goat industries of the state. Both sheep and goats were significant elements of the local economy, having been introduced to Texas…
View on map ↗Known as country music's First Family, the Carter family first found national acclaim while on XERA radio. Owned by Dr. John R. Brinkley, the powerful radio station across the Rio Grande from Del Rio reached listeners…
View on map ↗The military estabilshed Camp Michie, formerly known as Camp Del Rio, during the 1910s to serve forces assigned to secure the U.S.-Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution. As part of that duty, troops guarded…
View on map ↗Jewish merchant Max Stool (d. 1972) emigrated to the U.S. from an area of Russia once part of Poland. Settling first in Chicago, he came to Del Rio in 1904 while on a train trip to California and decided to stay. He…
View on map ↗U.S. Air Force pilot Rudolf Anderson was the only American airman shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Born in 1927 in South Carolina, Anderson joined the military in 1951 and soon began flying reconnaissance…
View on map ↗Laughlin Air Force Base pilots flew secret surveillance missions during the height of the Cold War. The Strategic Air Command formed the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing in 1956, utilizing high altitude Martin…
View on map ↗HTC medallion only
View on map ↗Six individuals met on September 23, 1882 to create the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the forerunner of First United Methodist Church of Del Rio. These first congregants were Randolph Pafford,J. Lyman Bailey,…
View on map ↗In 1929, San Felipe Independent School District (I.S.D.) formed; one of the district’s first decisions was to establish a high school. Residents voted unanimously for a bond for the institution. Building was completed…
View on map ↗SANTOS S. GARZA, ALSO KNOWN AS “DON SANTOS” OR “FATHER OF SAN FELIPE SCHOOLS,” WAS BORN NOV. 2, 1881 IN EITHER PIEDRAS NEGRAS OR EAGLE PASS. HE CAME TO DEL RIO IN 1898 WHERE HE OWNED NUMEROUS BUSINESSES INCLUDING A…
View on map ↗ORGANIZED IN THE 1920s, THIS CONGREGATION IS THE OLDEST SURVIVING WITH ORIGINS IN DEL RIO’S AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY. MEMBERS FIRST HELD SERVICES IN THE A.M.E. METHODIST CHURCH BEFORE SECURING THEIR OWN PROPERTY ON…
View on map ↗San Felipe ISD operated a school for African American students for a short time in the 1930s and again from 1945-56. Langston School on De la Rosa street was named for Langston Hughes, notable writer of the Harlem…
View on map ↗Records show a school for African American students in Del Rio was organized as early as 1901, closing in the 1920s. Del Rio ISD used part of a 1929-30 bond package to build a one-room stucco exterior school on Ware…
View on map ↗First Plaza established in Del Rio--a city built one site of a Pre-Colombian Indian Village. Abundant water, which attracted the Indians, also drew to this spot the earliest Europeans to visit Texas, including Cabeza De…
View on map ↗From its early days, the historically Hispanic community on the east side of San Felipe Creek has made education a priority, erecting a schoolhouse by 1883. Although the 1890 creation of Del Rio Independent School…
View on map ↗Serving with the U. S. Army at Forts Duncan and Clark and Camp Del Rio (1870-1881). The Scouts were key figures in ridding Texas of hostile Indians. The 100 Scouts were mainly descendants of runaway slaves who had…
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