Campsite of the "Fighting 69th"

The 69th did not camp alone. The New York Division, about 17,700 men, reached the border in July 1916 and made McAllen a headquarters; the camp there held some 10,000 soldiers and 3,500 horses and mules. General John O'Ryan banned drinking and prostitution and later credited the order with preventing trouble in town. The troops read a camp paper, the Rio Grand Rattler, and in August men of the 69th brawled with the 2nd Infantry. The Army described the job as stopping raids from Mexico, wider than the arms smuggling the marker names.

What the plaque says

Campsite of the "Fighting 69th" Famed New York Infantry Regiment. Encamped in McAllen during 1916-1917 bandit troubles, guarding the border and preventing the smuggling of arms across Rio Grande to Pancho Villa. Tour of duty here seasoned the men for rigors of World War I, wherein regiment won undying glory in France. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• La Lomita Chapel — 6.5 mi
  A small sandstone chapel on the Rio Grande levee, built by Oblate missionaries in 1865 and rebuilt at this site in 1899, the landmark that gave the city of Mission its name.
• Museum of South Texas History — 8.4 mi
  Edinburg's regional museum, begun in 1967 in the 1910 Hidalgo County jail and now telling the Rio Grande's story from fossils and native peoples through steamboats to the 20th century.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 8.9 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.
• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  About 2,000 acres of river forest on the Rio Grande's north bank, the surviving part of Benigno Leal's 1834 land grant, kept as a refuge since 1943 where two bird migration routes meet.

More markers nearby

• Site of Casa de Palmas — 0.3 mi
• Archer Park — 0.4 mi
• Bethel Baptist Church — 0.8 mi
• Floyd H. (Slats) Rodgers — 1.5 mi