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Cemetery in the middle of the field.
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, February 2008 |
History in a Pecan
Shell
The
area around present-day Los Indios was an original Spanish land grant dating from
1789. The name is thought to come from an 18th century ranch.
Modern Los
Indios began as a shipping point on the San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railroad
in 1913.
A post office was granted that same year and a store appeared
the next. The first population figure available is from 1925 when 25 residents
were reported. It increased to 150 by 1927. It managed to survive the Great Depression
and the 1940 census reported the 1927 figure of 150. From the early 1940s through
the 1960s, Los Indios used 100 for it’s population figure. Its businesses closed,
leaving just two in the late 1960s. The railroad stopped in 1949 and in the mid
1950s, the schools merged with The San Benito
ISD.
From the late 1960s through 1990 the population was given as 200 and
businesses fluctuated between one and four.
A colonia sprang up alongside
Los Indios in the mid 1970s, boosting the general population by over 700. The
colonia shrunk by about half in the mid 1980s, but Los Indios has gained population
– reaching 1,149 for the 2000 census.
Photographer's Note:
Subject:
Los Indios, TX
City Hall behind chain link fence, and a lonely cemetery in
the middle of a plowed field. - Ken
Rudine |
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