Zapata County

Zapata County has always paid in animals. Sheep numbered 34,960 in 1870 and 77,285 in 1880, while cattle numbered 6,957 and then 9,202. After the 1890s ranchers replaced many flocks with goats, and the first agricultural census to count them, in 1910, found 12,741. After World War II cattle took over again, rising from 10,733 head in 1930 to 34,613 in 1969, while goats fell to 128. The first commercial oil and gas wells came in the 1920s, in the Mirando Valley.

What the plaque says

Zapata County Formed from Webb and Starr counties; created January 22, 1858; organized April 26, 1858; named in honor of Antonio Zapata, a pioneer stockman of the region, supporter of the Republic of the Rio Grande; county seat, Carrizo, 1858; name later changed to Zapata.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Zapata County Museum of History — 5.5 mi
  The museum of a county whose old town of Zapata went under Falcon Reservoir, keeping the photographs, artifacts and natural history of the families who were moved.
• San Ygnacio Historic District — 8.9 mi
  A Rio Grande village of sandstone houses on land granted in 1750, home to the Treviño-Uribe Rancho, a fortified family compound begun in 1830 and a National Historic Landmark.

More markers nearby

• Site of Uribeño. — steps away
• Old Ramireño — 4.6 mi
• In the Vicinity of this Site was Mission Revilla a Visita — 5.6 mi
• Colonization of the Lower Rio Grande Area — 5.6 mi