Brooks County

The county was ranch country before it was a county. About 25 Spanish and Mexican land grants lie within its bounds, the earliest being San Salvador del Tule, awarded to Juan José Ballí on November 8, 1797. El Encino en el Poso, to Luciano Chapa, and El Paisano, to Ramón de la Garza, date from around 1827. Most grantees settled along the Rio Grande rather than here. Under Texas the land belonged first to San Patricio County, then to Nueces, Cameron, Webb and Starr, before Brooks County was cut from Starr in 1911, according to the Handbook of Texas.

What the plaque says

Brooks County Formed from Hidalgo, Starr and Zapata counties, created March 11, 1911; organized September 2, 1911. Named in honor of James Abijah Brooks, Captain of Texas Rangers, 1882-1906, member of Texas Legislature, County Judge, Brooks County since 1911; Falfurrias, the County Seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 9.5 mi
  A free town museum of ranch gear, a Texas Ranger room and 99,000 photo negatives, in the town Edward Lasater built around his railroad and his Jersey cows.
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine — 11 mi
  The grave and shrine of the folk healer of Los Olmos, a place of prayer where South Texans still leave candles and letters for the curandero who took no fee.
• Kenedy Ranch Museum of South Texas — 24 mi
  A museum in the Kenedy Pasture Company's 1927 office in Sarita, telling how Mifflin Kenedy and three generations of his family shaped the Wild Horse Desert, with murals and an audio guide.

More markers nearby

• Falfurrias to Encino Road — 3.8 mi
• Falfurrias — 9.1 mi
• James Abijah Brooks — 9.8 mi
• El Encino del Poso (The Oak in the Hole) — 12 mi