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PROGRESO,
TEXAS
Hidalgo County,
South
Texas
Highway 281 (the Military Highway) and FM 1015
2 Miles N of the Rio Grande
6 Miles S of Weslaco
21 Miles SE of McAllen
20 Miles E of Hidalgo
35 Miles W of Brownsville
Population: 4,851 (2000)
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| "The
old depot which was once a stop on the historic Spiderweb Railroad.
The depot was restored about 10 years ago and is now a business of
some sort." - A.D. Garza, April 2007 photo |
History in
a Pecan Shell
In 1776 when the United States was declaring its independence from
England, Juan José Hinojosa was requesting a land grant here from
the Spanish Crown. Fourteen years later (1790) the grant was approved
as part of the Llano Grande grant. Throughout the entire 19th Century,
the land around modern-day Progreso was occupied by small ranches
and family farms. The largest spread was Toluca Ranch in 1880 and
a post office was requested under the name Toluca. But for whatever
reason, postal authorities issued the name Progreso. The office operated
under that name from 1901 through 1916. In 1903 developers bought
the former ranches and started subdividing the land. A nucleus developed
two miles NW of the post office and they appropriated the name.
Sugarcane became an important regional crop and in 1920 over 6,000
acres (including the fledgling Progreso and Progreso Lakes) was sold
to become a vast sugarcane plantation. During the progressive 20s,
the San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railroad arrived - installing
a short-lived mission-style depot (closed 1931). After a 1925 freeze
killed the cane crop, it was decided that citrus might be more resistant
to cold weather. The town was platted by the Progreso Development
Company in 1927. The 1929 stock market crash, followed by a hurricane
in 1933 that sent the region into a downward economic spiral. Things
got better but a postwar freeze in 1949 followed closely by a second
freeze in 1951 made growers return to raising cane.
Earlier population figures aren't available but as recent as 1940,
Progresso only had 100 citizens. By the mid-1950s it had more than
doubled to 220. It was estimated at a mere 185 in 1989, but mysteriously
jumped to nearly 2,000 for the 1990 Census. A new bridge across the
Rio Grande helped bolster the population and by 2000, it had swelled
to 3,500, increasing to 4,851 (the figure given on the 2007 state
map). |
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Photo
Courtesy A.D. Garza, April 2007 |
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