Progreso

Progreso took its name from a post office rather than a ranch. Toluca Ranch, founded in 1880, asked for an office under its own name, but the government called it Progreso, and it ran from 1901 to 1916. When a community grew about two miles to the northwest, it borrowed the name. A fourth-class post office opened in 1930 with Albert G. Kurz as postmaster. The town stayed small for decades, then incorporated in November 1991 and grew quickly, helped by the Progreso International Bridge.

What the plaque says

Progreso Land in this area was part of a Spanish land grant requested by Juan Jose Hinojosa in 1776 and awarded posthumously in 1790. Hinojosa had occupied the land and used it for livestock pasture since 1766. In 1896 ranchers in the area obtained a U.S. post office under the name Progreso. Soon thereafter commercial farming interests began large scale operations in growing sugar cane and, later, citrus groves. The Progreso Development Company platted the townsite in 1927. The town continued a steady period of growth, and citizens voted for incorporation in 1991. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• 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.
• Museum of South Texas History — 19 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.
• La Lomita Chapel — 24 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.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• Former Station Site of Spiderweb Railroad — steps away
• Relampago Ranch — 2.5 mi
• El Horcon Tract and Rio Rico — 4.3 mi
• Camp Llano Grande — 4.3 mi