Santa Ana Land Grant
Alamo, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The 15-square-mile Santa Ana land grant was awarded by Mexico to Benigno Leal in 1834. Leal established his Rancho de Adentro (Inside Ranch) headquarters and cemetery at this site. Leal's original grant was eventually combined with adjacent lands to form the "Alamo Tract" which between 1910 and 1930 was converted to farmland by the Louisiana and Rio Grande Canal Company. The tract's southern section nevertheless retained its natural riverine forest environment and was acquired by the U.S. government in 1943 to create the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The 15-square-mile Santa Ana grant was awarded by Mexico to Benigno Leal in 1834, who set up his Rancho de Adentro headquarters and cemetery on this ground. Over the following century the land passed through the hands of canal and land companies that converted much of the surrounding country to irrigated farmland in the early 1900s. A stretch along the river kept its native forest and became the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in 1943.
Why it matters
The grant traces the Rio Grande Valley's journey from Mexican ranchland to irrigated agriculture and, finally, to conservation of one of the region's last wild river forests.
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Related people
- · Benigno Leal
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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