San Juan Townsite

San Juan is best known for the shrine of the Virgen de San Juan del Valle, built in 1954 and drawing pilgrims almost at once. On October 23, 1970, a man who had radioed a warning that Methodist and Catholic churches in the Valley should be emptied flew a rented plane into it while more than 130 people were inside. Two priests saved the statue. Damage ran to about 1.5 million dollars. The community rebuilt, and the new shrine was dedicated in April 1980 in ceremonies televised nationally in Spanish.

What the plaque says

San Juan Townsite The town of San Juan was established in 1910 with the sale of 406 acres of land to the San Juan Townsite Co., by area entrepreneur John Closner, for whom the town was named. Located on the rail line, San Juan quickly developed a business district along Fifth Street. At this site in 1911, the city's first two-story building was erected. It housed the San Juan State Bank until 1918 and served a variety of business, including the district irrigation office, until its partial demolition more than 60 years later. The only remaining section of the structure houses the city library. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 7.6 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 — 7.8 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 — 11 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 — 14 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

• Tom Mayfield — steps away
• First Pharr School — 1.5 mi
• City of Pharr — 1.6 mi
• Camp Ebenezer — 1.6 mi