| History
in a Pecan Shell
There had been an "Old" Lopeño that was covered by water when the
Falcon Dam was built in the early 1950s. Five other small communities -
Falcon, San Pedro, San José, Santa Fé and El Tigre
- were also covered by the reservoir.
The towns dated back to 1749 when
the settlers were brought to the area by Col. José de Escandón.
The
government had offered to move the towns to Zapata,
but the locals wanted to be near the land they had been on for generations. After
four days of rain in August 1953 - 450 families of Lopeño and Falcon
were hurriedly evacuated from the flooded communities.
The land had been
given as a grant by the king of Spain in July of 1767. Part of this grant came
to be owned by the Ramírez family, who founded Falcon.
In 1821 at the
Lopeño crossing of the river - Benito Ramírez constructed a home/fort, later known
as Ft. Lopeño.
During the Cortina War, Company K, of the
5th Infantry regiment, occupied "Camp Lopeño" for twelve days in 1856,
before returning to Ringgold Barracks in Rio
Grande City.
In 1934, the first producing well in the Lopeño gas
field was brought in. Many are still producing today.
A gas pipeline
carried the gas to Monterrey, Neuvo León.
When Old Lopeño was
about to be moved, the International Boundary and Water Commission announced that
all communities would have to move their cemeteries to a single location but the
people insisted on separate cemeteries.
© John Troesser
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