Grand Acres

The Rio Grande valley is a complex economic and perceptual region. What Texans call "the Valley" centers on Starr, Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy counties in the lower Rio Grande region and extends from the mouth of the Rio Grande up the river for a distance of some 100 miles. The lower Rio Grande contains good agricultural land, the region being a true delta and the soils alluvial, varying from sandy and silty loam through loam to clay. The area of about 43,000 square miles witnessed a tremendous development in a period of about thirty years. This spectacular development is attributable to two factors: the introduction of irrigation on a large scale in 1898 and the building of the railroad in 1904. Before that time the Valley was little more than quasi-desert rangeland. When the Spanish first occupied the area around 1750, they settled on the right bank of the river and divided the area north of the river into great cattle-ranch grants. The first American settlement in the area was Brownsville, which was founded as a result of the invasion of Zachary Taylor and the United States Army in the Mexican War (1846