Old Ramireño

The Ramírez land came late because it was too dangerous. When the Revilla grants were made in 1767, Comanche incursions left this stretch uninhabitable, so the Crown gave José Luis Ramírez his tract only in 1784. The Handbook of Texas says he and María Bacilia Martínez stayed in Revilla until 1810, when they built a house of hand-cut sandstone on the Texas side. Falcon Reservoir covered it in 1953. The people of the moved village later organized their own water system, formed in 1979 with a federal grant and loan.

What the plaque says

Old Ramireño Old Ramireño was located on land granted to Don Jose Luis Ramirez by the King of Spain in 1784. Part of the colonization effort of Col. Jose de Escandon, Ramirez' grant was designated as Porcion 5. A resident of Revilla (now Guerrero), Nuevo Santander (now Tamaulipas) in Mexico, Don Jose Luis Ramirez, his wife Maria Bacilia Martinez, and their children moved across the Rio Grande and established a home on their land in present Zapata County. Don Jose Luis and Maria Bacilia Martinez Ramirez had ten children. Their families and descendants formed the nucleus of the community of Ramireño. The men of the ill-fated Mier Expedition of 1842 camped at Ramireño during their march to Mexico, and the settlement was also the site of United States military activity during the Mexican Revolution and border raids of 1916-17. The construction of Falcon Reservoir on the Rio Grande caused the relocation of several area communities, including Ramireño. The settlement founded by Don Jose Luis Ramirez was moved in 1953 to a site two miles from the original Ramirez Ranch. The hand-cut sandstone Ramirez Ranch Home was covered by the waters of Falcon Reservoir. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Ygnacio Historic District — 4.4 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.
• Zapata County Museum of History — 10.0 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.

More markers nearby

• San Ygnacio — 4.5 mi
• Zapata County — 4.6 mi
• Site of Uribeño. — 4.6 mi
• In the Vicinity of this Site was Mission Revilla a Visita — 10 mi