San Perlita "Pearl of the Valley"

The town's name is a nickname that stuck. San Perlita was named for Pyrle Johnson, wife of developer Charles Rene Johnson, who planned the town in 1926 with W. G. Hecht while Mrs. Johnson landscaped the grounds. The site lay on the San Juan de Carricitos grant, and King Ranch land was sold at nine dollars an acre to the Gulf Coast Irrigation Company for development. The highway arrived in the late 1920s, and the Missouri Pacific reached town by 1930 by way of Raymondville. About 150 people lived here in 1933 and 200 in 1939.

What the plaque says

San Perlita "Pearl of the Valley" Part of the Carricitos land grant issued in 1790 by the King of Spain to Jose Narcisso Cavozos, this agricultural community and the surrounding farmland were developed soon after the Missouri Pacific Railroad extended a branch line to this area in 1926. The San Perlita Development Company cleared more than twenty thousand acres of land for growing staple, vegetable, and citrus crops and laid out the townsite of San Perilta. Since its development, the area has made significant contributions to the quality of life in this part of the Rio Grande Valley. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• San Juan De Carricitos Land Grant — 4.1 mi
• Edward Burleson Raymond — 9.0 mi
• Willacy County — 9.2 mi
• Lyford — 11 mi