El Encino del Poso (The Oak in the Hole)

The tree gave Encino its name, but cattle built the place. Early in the 1900s it was a roundup point for cattle raised by Mexican cattlemen, and a railroad reached it in 1904. The post office opened in 1914. The land is part of Luciano Chapa's grant, whose full name, La Encantada y Encina del Pozo, the Handbook of Texas renders as the Enchanted Place and Live Oak in a Hole. Population stayed small: 50 in 1925 and 100 in 1939. By 1948 Encino had three schools, a church and several houses.

What the plaque says

El Encino del Poso (The Oak in the Hole) In this vicinity once stood a magnificent live oak tree that was an early landmark on the South Texas Plains for many years. Noted for its size and its wide canopy, it was located in a large hollow created by livestock that gathered beneath its branches and by winds that eroded the exposed soil. El Encino del Poso was a landmark for early trails and land grants. It also served as the location of a stagecoach station and as the basis for naming Encino (1 mi. N). The tree died in the 1890s, before the formation of Brooks County, the victim of an extended drought. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 21 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 — 22 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 — 29 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 — 7.9 mi
• Brooks County — 12 mi
• Falfurrias — 21 mi
• James Abijah Brooks — 21 mi