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LA
PALOMA, TEXASCameron
County, Texas Gulf Coast
Highway 281 and FM 732
5 Miles S of San
Benito
NW of Brownsville
Population:
354 (2000)
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History
in a Pecan Shell
A storekeeper named Manuel Saldona is credited with naming
the town after the doves that nested in the native huisache trees. A post office
was opened in 1912 but closed in the late 1950s. The San Benito and Rio Grande
Valley Railway arrived in 1912 and built a station. The railroad extended to San
Pedro (formerly called Santander) in 1928. From a 1915 population of just twenty-five
people (20 in 1925), La Paloma swelled to 150 by 1940. The population remained
at 150 until the early 1970s when it declined to 110 in 1973. A colonia formed
around part of La Paloma in the 1970s and population estimates went as high as
726 in 1976. By 1984 it had declined to 450 and by 2000 it had declined to just
354. | |
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