Zavala County

Who owned the farms and who worked them shows in the county's numbers. By 1930 Zavala had the highest ratio of laborers to farms in South Texas. Anglos were mostly owner-operators; Hispanics, an estimated 7,660 residents against 239 in 1910, were mostly sharecroppers and farm laborers. Crystal City segregated children through fifth grade by 1928, and in 1939 the county had eight White schools, eleven Hispanic schools and one Black school. In 1934 Senovio Sandoval became the first Mexican American varsity football player and graduate of a county high school.

What the plaque says

Zavala County Explored as early as 1691 by the expedition of Domingo Teran de Los Rios, Spanish governor of Texas. The historic San Antonio Road crossed this region from southwest to northeast and was used by most of the Spanish explorers and travelers of the 18th century. French-American explorer St. Denis used it in 1714, as did the Canary Islanders, who made one of the first civil settlements in San Antonio, in 1718. The county was created in 1858 from Uvalde and Maverick counties and named for Texas patriot and statesman Lorenzo de Zavala. Not until 1884, however, did enough people reside here to permit it to be organized. The first county seat was Bates City, later renamed Batesville. First judge was J. M. Downs and commissioners were W. C. Mangum, E. P. Waller, V. M. West and G. B. Kenney. Before 1884 was out, a school election had been held in Palo Blanco, and a $7,500 contract had been let for a courthouse and jail. When the county seat moved to Crystal City (1928) courthouse and jail were built here. New courthouse erected 1969 at cost of $475,000 was commissioned by 1968-1969 county courts: Irl Taylor, Judge; Cecil Davis, Jr.; F. D. Keller, Jr.; H. R. Reynolds; E. B. Ross; Jesus Rodriguez; and Henry Volz, Jr., commissioners. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• My Story Museum — steps away
  A free museum on Zavala Street holding three stories of one small Texas town: the 1969 student walkout and Raza Unida years, the internment camp and its veterans.
• Crystal City Family Internment Camp Site — 0.8 mi
  The only wartime camp built for whole families, where Japanese, German and Italian Americans and Latin American deportees were held from 1942 to 1948, now marked by cottage foundations and a pool.
• Dimmit County Courthouse — 11 mi
  An 1884 Italianate courthouse wrapped in a 1920s Classical Revival remake, in the seat of a county whose white primary kept Mexican Americans out of politics for nearly fifty years.

More markers nearby

• Crystal City Family Internment Camp, World War II — 0.8 mi
• Zavala County — 6.5 mi
• Burleson Cemetery — 8.8 mi
• Dimmit County — 11 mi