Lajitas Cemetery
Lajitas, Brewster County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Lajitas, the Spanish word for flagstone, comes from the Boquillas Geologic Formation. Located near the Lajitas Crossing/San Carlos ford on the Rio Grande, the Lajitas cemetery has been in use since at least the early 1900s. For millennia, the ford was used by natives of the region; the Comanche, Apache and other tribes used it during raids into northern New Spain/Mexico. In 1747-1748, two Spanish entradas, led by Pedro de Rábago y Therán and Don Fermín de Vidaurre, traversed the crossing looking for a location for a presidio. Following the Comanche Trail, Brevet 2nd lieutenant Echols stopped here on July 27, 1860, during the second experimental camel expedition. In 1899, rancher H.W. McGuirk opened a trading post near the crossing to serve the growing Hispanic and Anglo population. By 1900, the Lajitas crossing was a substation port of entry with uniformed and mounted inspectors. Ultimately, a small settlement emerged with businesses, a school, church and cemetery. From 1911-1917, U.S. Troops manned the crossing. For about a century, the Lajitas cemetery has been the resting place for Hispanic and Anglo residents and area workers. The cemetery is enclosed by columns of Boquillas flagstone connected by a wrought-iron fence. The 138 identified graves in the cemetery are primarily from the early to mid-20th century. Vernacular construction predominates in a variety of forms, including barrows (simple rock or sediment mounds) and grutas (elevated monuments with openings or niches for memorials). Used sporadically in recent times, the cemetery’s post-1950 burials typically have engraved modern headstones and statues, often with cement slabs over the tombs. The Lajitas cemetery is a reminder of the varied culture and history of this area of Brewster County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Set beside a Rio Grande ford that people crossed for millennia, the Lajitas cemetery gathers the varied history of the Big Bend borderland into one flagstone-walled ground. Comanche and Apache raiders followed the crossing into Mexico, Spanish expeditions scouted it for a presidio in the 1740s, and one of the Army's experimental camel expeditions paused here in 1860. After rancher H. W. McGuirk opened a trading post in 1899 and troops manned the crossing in the 1910s, a small settlement grew—and its Hispanic and Anglo dead were laid to rest here in barrows and niche-topped grutas.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a layered record of the borderlands, where Native trails, Spanish empire, frontier commerce, and the mingled Hispanic and Anglo communities of the Rio Grande all leave their trace.
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Related people
- · H. W. McGuirk
- · Pedro de Rábago y Therán
Related events
- · U.S. Army Camel Corps expedition
Themes & tags
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