Val Verde County

Sheep and goats explain how the county filled up. By 1890 sheep outnumbered cattle because overgrazing had hurt the range, and in 1900 the census counted 122,565 sheep. By 1940 sheep and goats together passed 643,000. Two dams built on the Devils River in the 1920s, Lake Walk and Devils Lake, were drowned by Amistad Reservoir when its dam closed in 1969. In the 1980s Angora goats and sheep still made up 99 percent of the county's agriculture.

What the plaque says

Val Verde County VAL VERDE COUNTY LIES IN SOUTHWEST TEXAS NEAR THE BORDER WITH MEXICO AND ON THE SOUTHWESTERN EDGE OF THE EDWARDS PLATEAU. HOME TO MANY PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES, THE COUNTY WAS ALSO INHABITED AND VISITED BY NATIVE AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS, SOME AS THEY WERE PASSING TO AND FROM MEXICO. ALTHOUGH THE SOIL IN THE COUNTY IS NOT PERFECT FOR FARMING, THE LARGE AREA IS IDEAL FOR GRAZING AND INCLUDES MANY RIVERS AND CREEKS. THE LAND THAT IS NOW VAL VERDE COUNTY WAS ASSIGNED TO BEXAR COUNTY IN 1836, ALONG WITH MOST OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS. BEGINNING IN THE 1850s, THE FORMATION OF COUNTIES IN THIS AREA BEGAN. FORMING A GATEWAY TO MEXICO, DEL RIO (ORIGINALLY SAN FELIPE DEL RIO) WAS ESTABLISHED NEAR THE RIO GRANDE IN KINNEY COUNTY IN THE 1860s. IN 1882, THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD REACHED DEL RIO, BYPASSING BRACKETTVILLE, THE COUNTY SEAT OF KINNEY COUNTY. FROM 1882 TO 1885, DEMAND TO CREATE A NEW COUNTY WITH DEL RIO AS THE COUNTY SEAT INCREASED. AFTER AN INITIAL DEFEAT IN THE LEGISLATURE, THE COUNTY WAS ORGANIZED IN 1885 AND OFFICIALS WERE ELECTED. THE COUNTY WAS CARVED FROM PARTS OF CROCKETT, KINNEY AND PECOS COUNTIES. THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME VAL VERDE IS THE SUBJECT OF DEBATE. SOME ARGUE THAT THE NAME IS IN HONOR OF THE BATTLE NEAR FORT CRAIG, NEW MEXICO IN 1862, WHILE OTHERS MAINTAIN THAT THE NAME, SPANISH FOR "GREEN VALLEY," IS PURELY AN ENVIRONMENTAL DESCRIPTION. THE POPULATION OF THE COUNTY CONTINUES TO GROW AND SUPPORTS NUMEROUS SHEEP, GOAT AND CATTLE RANCHES, LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, TOURISM AND TRADE WITH MEXICO. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 0.5 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.
• San Felipe Creek — 0.6 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.
• Val Verde Winery — 0.9 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

• Camp Hudson, C.S.A. — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Del Rio — steps away
• Val Verde County Courthouse Square — steps away
• John Taini — steps away