Located in the Rio Grande Valley in what is nicknamed the "Land of Two Summers", Alamo is a city in the irrigated area of southern Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. Known as the "Refuge to the Valley", it is located in an area of abundant vegetable farming and citrus groves, and is a noted winter resort/retirement town near the Mexico-U.S. border. Alamo is one of the Rio Grande Valley's gateways to Mexico, via U.S. Route 281 and Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas, as well as a gateway to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

As you enter Brownsville's Mitte Cultural District, you will find many attractions and things to do within a four-block radius. Stop by the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art and get a feel for the city's local art. The museum contains works by local as well as international artists and houses a permanent collection dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Take a stroll through Gladys Porter Zoo, an oasis nested in the center of the Cultural District, and witness over 1,500 rare species of mammals, birds and reptiles as you explore this lush landscape filled with tropical plants. Also part of the district is the Old City Cemetery, Historic Brownsville Museum, Costumes of the Americas, and Children's Museum of Brownsville. These museums provide visitors with a sense Brownsville's history, architecture, art, genealogy and folk art.

In Brownsville's downtown area the Stillman House/Heritage Complex and Market Square Research Center open a window to the historical evolution of the city from its discovery up to the first half of the 20th Century.
Continue your exploration of Brownsville's history by visiting various historical landmarks. In the outskirts of the city you'll find the nationally recognized Palo Alto Battlefield site, which marked the start of the war between the United State and Mexico. Also visit the last battle of the Civil War at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, where weeks after the Confederate armies had surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, United States and Confederate forces clashed on the coastal plains east of the city.

Two East Texas men, T. J. Hooks and A. F. Hester, began developing this area for settlement in the late 1890s. Through formation of the La Blanca Agricultural Company, they set up farms and irrigation systems and advertised the area's favorable climate and resources. In 1904, when a rail line was built here, they founded the town of Donna, named for T. J. Hooks daughter. Ed Ruthven opened the first store and, in 1908, the town incorporated with R. P. Boeye as mayor. Since the earliest days of the 20th century, Donna has developed as one of the leading cities of the Rio Grande Valley.

Edinburg, the Hidalgo county seat, is on U.S. Highway 281 and State Highway 107 in the south central part of the county. It is part of the McAllen, Pharr, Edinburg metropolitan area. Hidalgo, on the Rio Grande, was the original county seat. John Closner and William Briggs, who had land-development projects in the vicinity of Chapin, seventeen miles north of Hidalgo, made Chapin county seat. The townsite was named after Dennis B. Chapin, another of its promoters.

Harlingen is one of the most unique tropical pleasures to be found in South Texas.
Whether you fly into Valley International Airport or drive to the city, Harlingen offers easy
access to multiple shopping districts, unlimited birding, historical and artistic treasures, plus never-ending family fun.
There’s nothing like a nice getaway, and Harlingen is proud to be the city in the center of it all.

La Feria is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and Farm Road 506, twenty-four miles northwest of Brownsville in western Cameron County. The area was first settled when the land was assigned by Spain in 1777 to Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí as part of the La Feria land grant. The Ballí family established several farms with headquarters on the La Feria grant. The family maintained control of the land well into the mid-1800s, and the community that grew up on the grant remained a ranching center into the twentieth century. In 1909 G. J. Schoenberg, a local land developer, developed the town of La Feria.

Laguna Heights is a bayside community located on State Highway 100 about three miles west of Port Isabel in eastern Cameron County. State highway maps showed settlement along the Laguna Madre in the 1930s when several farms and one business establishment operated in the area.

Located in south-central Cameron County. In 1912, Lon Hill, an early landowner, formed a company to develop a canal system that would use the Rio Grande to irrigate land for farming. Railroad construction in the early 1900s began to bring settlers to the area, and by 1915, a post office was established. Because of the fertile, irrigated land, farm products increased, and with the long growing season in the Rio Grande Valley, farming flourished. Today, the city is still surrounded by fertile farm/ranch land. Major crops are cotton, sugarcane, grains, oranges, and red grapefruit.

Los Indios is a suburb of Brownsville with a population of 838. Los Indios is in Cameron County. Living in Los Indios offers residents a rural feel and most residents own their homes. Many families and retirees live in Los Indios

McAllen is a city in southern Texas. The International Museum of Art & Science has interactive exhibits, Picasso lithographs and European paintings. To the south, Quinta Mazatlan is a Spanish Revival mansion surrounded by woodland rich in birdlife. Set in a 1930s former post office, the McAllen Heritage Center has local history displays. McAllen’s many parks include Fireman's Park, home to large Town Lake.

Mercedes is in the Rio Grande valley on U.S. Highway 83 twenty-five miles east of McAllen in southeastern Hidalgo County. The site was first settled by ranchers in the late 1770s and was part of the Llano Grande Spanish land grant issued on May 29, 1790, to Juan José Ynojosa de Ballí. During the 1850s it was the location of the Anacuitas ranch, owned by Ramón and Manuel Cavazos.

Mission, known as the "tourist mecca of South Texas," is in southwestern Hidalgo County on U.S. Highway 83, the Missouri Pacific line, and State Highway 107. It is 3½ miles north of the Rio Grande, four miles northeast of Anzalduas County Park, five miles northeast of Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Scenic Park, and twenty-three miles northwest of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

Palmview is in southwestern Hidalgo County, to the west of Mission. U.S. Route 83 passes through the city as a freeway, leading east 10 miles (16 km) to McAllen and west 30 miles (48 km) to Rio Grande City.

Peñitas is off Farm Road 1427 ten miles northwest of McAllen in southwestern Hidalgo County. According to local tradition it was established by a splinter group of survivors of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition of 1520, consisting of a Fray Zamora, five military officers, and their slaves. According to the story, Zamora's group was befriended by Calero Indians who lived beside the Rio Grande in dugout houses and thatched huts. An exchange in farming and cooking techniques resulted in an amicable relationship between the Spanish and the Caleros.

Pharr is on the Missouri Pacific line and old U.S. Highway 83 (now Interstate Highway 2), just to the east of McAllen in south central Hidalgo County. Its site is within a Spanish land grant made in 1767 to Juan José Hinojosa. The Hinojosa family and heirs sold off portions of their land to various groups in the late nineteenth century and occupied the area as late as 1882.

Port Isabel boasts a permanent population in excess of 5,000 and is separated from the shores of South Padre Island by the 2.6 mile long Queen Isabella Causeway. Its subtropical climate and heritage rich in culture and history make the city a favorite destination for millions of visitors each year. We hope you will be among them.
We are accessible through the Brownsville, Harlingen or McAllen Airports. Guests here stay at one of our historic inns, quaint hotels or quality motels. If you are planning to stay longer consider one of our excellent RV parks or condominiums.

Port Mansfield is one of the most popular fishing destinations on the Texas Gulf Coast, located on the Laguna Madre, opposite Port Mansfield Channel in northeastern Willacy County, Texas. Once an isolated and obscure fish camp known as Red Fish Landing, today Port Mansfield is recognized as one of the ten top fishing locations in the United States.
Port Mansfield offers fishermen access to the Laguna Madre, Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico. Boaters and fishermen enjoy the uncrowded and unpolluted environment of Port Mansfield and South Texas.

Raymondville, the county seat of Willacy County, is at the intersection of State Highways 186 and 448 and is bordered on the east by U.S. Highway 77; the community is twenty-two miles west of Port Mansfield on the Missouri Pacific line in the center of the county. It was established by Edward Burleson Raymond, who organized the Raymond Town and Improvement Company in 1904.

Rio Hondo is off Farm roads 508 and 1846 on the northeastern boundary of Harlingen in north central Cameron County. It was established in 1910 and named for its location on the Arroyo Colorado. Río hondo is Spanish for "deep river." The first settler was J. R. George, who operated a general store and served as the first postmaster when the post office was established in 1911.

San Benito is on U.S. Highway 77/83 five miles south of Harlingen and twenty miles north of Brownsville in Cameron County, at the approximate center of the county. The town is on the Concepción de Carricitos grant, awarded to Bartolomé and Eugenio Fernández in 1789. The portion of the grant on which San Benito is built was obtained in the mid nineteenth century by Judge Stephen Powers in return for legal services to the Fernández heirs. In 1904 Col. Sam Robertson went into partnership with James Landrum and Benjamin Hicks, Powers's sons-in-law and administrators of his estate, to form what later became the San Benito Land and Water Company.

San Juan is on Farm Road 1426 and State Highway Spur 374, about six miles northeast of McAllen in south central Hidalgo County. The townsite is on land that was part of two Spanish grants made in 1767 to Narciso Cabazos and to José María Ballí. The grantees and their heirs occupied the land well into the 1850s, most likely working as subsistence farmers and cattle and sheep ranchers. San Juan was organized in 1909 by John Closner and was reportedly named for him.

South Padre Island is a resort town on a barrier island of the same name, off the southern coast of Texas. It’s known for its beaches and calm waters. South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center is home to a 5-story watchtower with views of migrating birds. The South Padre Island Dolphin Research & Sealife Nature Center offers boat tours and touch tanks. Sea turtles are rescued and rehabilitated at Sea Turtle Inc.

Weslaco, about fifteen miles west of Harlingen in south central Hidalgo County, is on U.S. Highway 83 and Farm Road 88. The site was part of the Llano Grande grant to Juan José Ynojosa de Ballí (1790). Upon Ynojosa's death the grant was divided among his children, and Manuela and María received the land on which Weslaco is situated. The Ballí family ranched and maintained ownership until 1852. In 1904 the Hidalgo and San Miguel extension of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the site, promoted by Uriah Lott, Lon C. Hill, Jr. and others interested in developing the area through farming as opposed to traditional Hispanic ranching.

Zapata, the county seat of Zapata County, is on U.S. Highway 83 and the shores of International Falcon Reservoir, fifty miles south of Laredo. The first European settlers in the area were residents of Revilla (now Ciudad Guerrero), Mexico. Organized settlement of the area began about 1750, when the viceroy of New Spain commissioned Col. José de Escandón to explore and colonize the vast northern frontier along the Rio Grande.