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CARRIZO
SPRINGS, TEXASDimmit
County Seat, South
Texas
US Highway 83
State Hwy 85 & FM 2644
50 miles
S of Uvalde
44 miles SE of Eagle Pass
45
miles SW of Dilley
8 miles NW of Asherton
Population: 5655 (2000) 5,745 (1990) |
Carrizo
Springs 1940s Street scene
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/
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History
in a Pecan Shell
The names: Phillip Dimitt had received the original grant of land as a naturalized
Mexican citizen. He became the honoree for the county name - although the legislature
misspelled Dimitt. People have grown fond of the misspelling over the years and
so it has been kept.
Carrizo is Spanish for reeds.
Carrizo
Springs is the oldest town in Dimmit County. The name comes from the local springs
(and the reeds) and the settlement began around 1865. Families from Atascosa County
moved into the area that year and they were joined the following year with a group
from Goliad.
Dimmit County
was organized in 1880 and Carrizo Springs was designated the county seat.
In 1880 early settler Levi English donated land for the town including schools,
churches, and a courthouse. |
 |
In 1884
the Dimmit County courthouse
was finished and the Carrizo Springs Javelin was first published.
The
population was a healthy 500 persons in 1885.
In 1900 artesian water
was used to irrigate crops and new settlers arrived. In 1904 thirty wells were
irrigating 1,000 acres of cropland.
In 1910 the town incorporated when
the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad came to town.
The town
had 1,200 people by 1915, and the town was electrified the next year. The 20s
began with a drought, but later in the decade they caught up with the rest of
the nation's prosperity. Streets were paved and the courthouse
was remodeled.
By 1928 the population had reached 2,500.
Carrizo
Springs' growth kept it the dominant city in Dimmit County and it had the only
newspaper and only radio station in the county in 1984.
In 1988 the population
was 7,553. |
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Carrizo
Springs Chronicles The
Vidalia Onion
"Toombs County, Georgia is acknowledged to be
the birthplace of the Vidallia Onion. Georgia had been having a problem with weeds
that were growing faster than the locally planted onion sets. Texas transplants,
it was hoped, would give the farmers a much-needed head start and so Texas Granex
onions from Carrizo Springs were shipped there in 1952. ..." more
Henigan
Water by Mike
Cox ("Texas
Tales"column)
"...Word of the amazing restorative qualities
of the water spread faster than the contents of a spilled bucket. The Javelin
said the people of Carrizo Springs got so healthy that the local doctors practically
fell into poverty...." |
Dimmit
County Chamber of Commerce
310 West Nopal / P. O. Box 699
Carrizo Springs, TX 78834-6699
(830) 876-5205
http://www.dimmitcountytx.com/ |
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