San Juan De Carricitos Land Grant
Raymondville, Willacy County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The largest land grant in South Texas, the San Juan de Carrictios lands were awarded to Don Jose Narciso Cavazos in 1792 by the King of Spain. Comprising over one-half million acres, the grant included virtually all of present Williacy County, including the sites of the towns of Sebastian, Lyford, Raymondville, Lasara, San Perlita, and Port Mansfield. In 1793 Cavazos took formal possession of the land grant seven miles north of this site. Most of the grant was later sold by Cavazos' heirs, although some descendants still live within its boundaries. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1792 the Spanish crown awarded Don Jose Narciso Cavazos the San Juan de Carricitos grant, more than half a million acres and the largest land grant in South Texas. Cavazos formally took possession the following year, and the grant eventually encompassed nearly all of present-day Willacy County. Though his heirs sold most of the land, some descendants still live within its old boundaries.
Why it matters
The grant is a foundation stone of South Texas land tenure, showing how Spanish colonial claims shaped the region's map and families long before it became part of the United States.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late 1700s the land now called South Texas lay at the northern edge of Spain's vast American empire. In the mid-1700s Spain had organized the colony of Nuevo Santander along the lower Rio Grande to strengthen its hold on the region, founding towns along the river. In the decades that followed, the crown began granting large tracts north of the river to settlers willing to raise livestock on this brush country.
These grants were given in the name of the King of Spain and were often enormous, because the dry land could support only scattered herds. Ranching families from the river towns moved their cattle, horses and sheep north, laying the foundations of the ranching culture that would define South Texas.
The region's sovereignty would change several times in the following decades, from Spain to Mexico, to the Republic of Texas, and then to the United States. Through all of it, the question of who owned the land, based on these original grants, remained deeply important.
People & events
In 1792 the King of Spain granted Don José Narciso Cavazos the San Juan de Carricitos lands. The grant was enormous, over half a million acres, the largest land grant in South Texas. It covered nearly all of what is now Willacy County, including the sites of today's Sebastian, Lyford, Raymondville, Lasara, San Perlita and Port Mansfield.
In 1793 Cavazos formally took possession of the grant at a spot about seven miles north of the marker. Under Spanish practice, taking possession was a formal, public act, making the grant official and marking the start of the family's claim to the land.
Over the generations, Cavazos's heirs sold most of the grant, and new towns and farms rose across its former territory. But the family's ties to the land never entirely disappeared. Some of Cavazos's descendants still live within the grant's old boundaries, more than two centuries after it was awarded.
Its place in the American story
The San Juan de Carricitos grant is a reminder that the history of the American Southwest didn't begin with the United States. Long before Texas joined the Union, Spanish colonial grants established land ownership, ranching traditions and communities that shaped the region.
Those grants have mattered long after the Spanish crown's departure. When Texas and later the United States took control of the region, the validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants became a major legal and political issue, affecting who held the land and how it passed from generation to generation. In South Texas, many property boundaries still trace back to these original grants.
The Cavazos grant also reflects the deep Hispanic roots of South Texas ranching. The skills, vocabulary and traditions of the cattle country that later became identified with the American cowboy owe much to ranching families of the Spanish borderlands.
If you visit
The marker stands near Raymondville, in the heart of the land the Cavazos grant once covered. As you drive through Willacy County, remember that almost everything around you, from farm fields to town sites, was once part of a single royal grant.
The name Carricitos refers to small reeds or cane, a reminder of how early settlers described the landscape. Look out at the flat coastal plain and brush country and imagine this land as open cattle range in the 1790s, long before highways, farms and towns.
The marker makes a good starting point for exploring the Lower Rio Grande Valley's Spanish colonial heritage. Many of the towns named on the marker are a short drive away, and heading toward Port Mansfield takes you to the coast at the grant's eastern edge.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Jose Narciso Cavazos
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Edward Burleson Raymond
Raymondville, TX
Born in an Austin log house to a Republic of Texas newspaperman, E. B. Raymond rode into South Texas in 1870 and spent decades managing the sprawling King-Kenedy ranching empire. Building his own ranch and civic career, he helped bring the railroad through by deeding right-of-way and donating a station site, which the railway named in his honor. He then founded a town company, bank, telephone exchange, and cotton gin, and Raymondville later became the seat of Willacy County.
Willacy County
Raymondville, TX
Carved from Cameron and Hidalgo counties in 1911 and reorganized a decade later, Willacy County honors John G. Willacy, a state legislator and tax commissioner. Its seat shifted from Sarita to Raymondville as the county settled into its modern shape in the 1920s.
Willacy County Courthouse
Raymondville, TX
After Willacy County was reorganized in 1921 with Raymondville as its seat, officials held early meetings in a bank building and even borrowed a jail cage from the King Ranch. They soon commissioned architect Henry T. Phelps — who had designed the earlier courthouse in remote Sarita — to build a proper three-story courthouse and jail, completed in 1923. The understated brick building became the focus of civic pride and community life in the South Texas county.
Lyford
Lyford, TX
This corner of the Willacy County brushland was once King Ranch pasture nicknamed "Como se Llama" before Rock Island Railroad executives developed the townsite in 1907, naming it for Illinois attorney William H. Lyford. Midwestern settlers arrived by train and camped in tents until homes could be built, drawing water from an artesian well and worshiping and schooling in "Pioneer Hall." Soldiers and Texas Rangers guarded the young town through the border bandit raids of 1913-15.