San Ygnacio Historic District

The Carrizo, Tepemaca and Borrado peoples lived along this stretch of river before the Spanish arrived. On August 22, 1750, José Vázquez Borrego founded Nuestra Señora de los Dolores Hacienda a few miles upriver, and by 1755 its ferry was the most important crossing of the Rio Grande. San Ygnacio came later. In 1830 settlers from Revilla, now Guerrero, led by Jesús Treviño, took up land on the Dolores grant, and Treviño built a sandstone house, Fort Treviño, that same year.

The Treviño-Uribe Rancho grew over four decades. Treviño's son-in-law Blas María Uribe added rooms in 1851 and 1854, and a parlor in 1871, each dated by an inscribed beam. Uribe platted the town in 1874 around a plaza. The compound has thick sandstone walls, gun ports called troneras, an arched gate and flat chipichil roofs. It is private, owned by a Treviño descendant, and tours have not been offered, so look from the street.

Thirty-six stone buildings in the style of old Revilla make up the historic district, a style the rising waters of Falcon Reservoir later buried across the river. San Ygnacio's residents argued in 1951 that their ground was high enough to stay dry, and the request was granted. The post office, open since 1876, sits in the restored Trinidad Uribe house. The nonprofit River Pierce Foundation works on restoration.