Bustamante (Rancho Las Comitas)

Bustamante's dates depend on who is telling them. The Handbook of Texas says Pedro José Bustamante received the Las Comitas grant in 1802 and that a post office opened in 1913; the plaque gives 1835 and 1926. The Handbook adds details the plaque skips. Before 1960 several springs gave residents sweet water, though they have since dried up. Peanuts grew here in the 1930s and 1940s, and in 1942 three men of the community bought a harvesting machine for $300. The ranch headquarters is private land, and the roadside marker is the place to stop.

What the plaque says

Bustamante (Rancho Las Comitas) The unincorporated village of Bustamante, settled by Don Pedro Jose Bustamante and his family in 1822, is located on a 22,142-acre land grant awarded by the Mexican government to Bustamante in 1835. He brought other settlers, horses, cattle, sheep, and goats to help open up the frontier. An early sandstone blockhouse built by the Bustamante family provided protection from Indian raids. During the 1870s the village became the headquarters of Rancho Las Comitas, named for the Comita tree which grew on the property. Las Comitas gave rise to a community of homes, a school and a store, making the ranch almost self sufficient. Part of the land later was claimed by the State of Texas in a Supreme Court case. Numerous Bustamante family members are buried in three ranch cemeteries: the Bustamante Cemetery, the Cameron Cemetery, and the Gracia Cemetery. The community was officially named Bustamante in 1926 when a post office was established with Herlinda Bustamante as postmistress. Ranch life changed in the 1930s with the discovery of oil and gas in the area. Although much of the land was leased for exploration wells, the ranch is still in operation under the direction of Bustamante descendants. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Zapata County Museum of History — 12 mi
  The museum of a county whose old town of Zapata went under Falcon Reservoir, keeping the photographs, artifacts and natural history of the families who were moved.
• San Ygnacio Historic District — 20 mi
  A Rio Grande village of sandstone houses on land granted in 1750, home to the Treviño-Uribe Rancho, a fortified family compound begun in 1830 and a National Historic Landmark.

More markers nearby

• Colonization of the Lower Rio Grande Area — 12 mi
• Old Zapata — 12 mi
• In the Vicinity of this Site was Mission Revilla a Visita — 12 mi
• Site of Uribeño. — 14 mi