Lyford

Lyford was built to a plan that welcomed some people and shut out others. Rock Island Company employees formed the Gulf Coast Irrigation Company, which bought 34,000 acres from the King Ranch at nine dollars an acre. Settlers, many from Illinois, lived in tents from 1904 to 1906, and the plat was filed on March 19, 1907. Mexican residents were segregated, and town leaders set up a separate town for them so they could, in the Handbook's quoted words, "do and build as they wished." Pioneer Hall, built in 1907, served for worship, school and meetings.

What the plaque says

Lyford Before the arrival of the railroad, this area was a part of the King Ranch known as "Como se LLama". Lyford was developed in 1907 by executives of the Rock Island Railroad and named for attorney William H. Lyford of Illinois. Settlers came by train from the midwest and lived in tents until permanent homes could be built. An artesian well supplied water, and "Pioneer Hall" housed worship services and school classes. Later the Lyford Hotel became a focal point for the town. Soldiers and Texas Rangers protected Lyford during the border bandit raids of 1913-15. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of South Texas History — 24 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.
• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 30 mi
  A coastal refuge set up in 1946 for wintering redhead ducks, with 417 bird species recorded and, by the Fish and Wildlife Service's account, the largest ocelot population in the United States.
• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 31 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

• Sebastian — 4.7 mi
• Edward Burleson Raymond — 4.7 mi
• Willacy County — 5.0 mi
• Hilltop Gardens — 7.1 mi