The American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation System
Mercedes, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Land developer B. F. Yoakum saw agricultural potential along the Rio Grande and found investors in 1905 for an irrigation project. They purchased 250,000 acres and the townsite of Mercedes for business headquarters. The pump station began operating in 1908. The system had grown by 1920 to three large canals, miles of branches, and five pumping plants. In 1930 the Hidalgo and Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District took over the system which continues to serve the farming area of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1905, at the dawn of the Lower Rio Grande Valley's transformation into an agricultural powerhouse, developer B. F. Yoakum gathered investors to turn arid brushland into irrigated farmland. Their company bought a quarter-million acres and built the townsite of Mercedes as its headquarters, and by 1908 pumps were lifting river water into a growing web of canals. Within a dozen years the system had swelled to three main canals and five pumping plants, and it passed to public water districts in 1930 that still serve Valley farmers today.
Why it matters
Large-scale irrigation companies like this one turned the semi-arid Rio Grande borderland into one of America's most productive farming regions, a defining chapter in the settlement and commercial development of South Texas.
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Related people
- · B. F. Yoakum
Themes & tags
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