Encino

Encino is a rural community on U.S. Highway 281 eighteen miles south of Falfurrias in southern Brooks County. Its site is within Luciano Chapa's 1832 Mexican land grant, called La Encantada y Encina del Pozo ("Enchanted Place and Live Oak in a Hole"), a name reportedly derived from a large live oak at the site, around which a hole gradually developed as wind erosion and animals seeking the oak's shade wore down the surrounding land. The Encino community was established at the site in the early 1900s as a roundup point for cattle raised by Mexican cattlemen. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad was completed through Encino in 1904, and a post office was established there in 1914. The community's population in 1925 was fifty, and it remained at that level until 1939, when a population of 100 was reported. The population of Encino was estimated at 200 by 1941, but it dropped to 125 by 1945. In 1948 Encino had three schools, a church, and several dwellings. In 1970 the community's population was 110, and in 1976 it had eleven businesses. In 1982 Encino had a school, a church, three businesses, and several dwellings. During the early 1990s it was a dispersed community with nine businesses and 110 inhabitants. In 2000 the population was 177 with eighteen businesses.