Val Verde County

Val Verde is Spanish for green valley, and the county took the name from the largest Civil War battle in the Rocky Mountain West. At the Valverde Ford, upriver from Fort Craig, Brig. Gen. Henry H. Sibley, ill, exhausted and drunk, retired to an ambulance and left the field to Col. Thomas Green. Capt. Willis L. Lang's company, armed only with lances, charged Colorado volunteers and lost more men than any other company in Sibley's army. Union losses were 222 killed and wounded, Confederate 183. The Texans held the field, but the campaign ended in retreat.

What the plaque says

Val Verde County Formed from Crockett, Kinney and Pecos counties. Created March 24, 1885. Organized March 31, 1885. Named in honor of the battle fought at Val Verde, near Fort Craig, New Mexico, February 19, 1862. Del Rio, the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe Creek — 0.5 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 1.5 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• Val Verde Winery — 1.8 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 9.2 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• U. S. Army Camel Corps — steps away
• Camp Michie — steps away
• San Felipe Springs — 0.2 mi
• Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz — 0.2 mi