Name: Del Rio, Texas
Address: Del Rio, TX

Del Rio, TX RoadyGoat

Del Rio is a place where the desert scrub meets the Rio Grande, a land etched with history and resilience. The river, of course, defines us – both as a source of life and a firm border. You can stand here, at almost a thousand feet above sea level, and see the canyons that carve the landscape, part of the Amistad National Recreation Area. It's a beautiful vista, but it also tells a story. And part of that story is about the people. This town has seen its share of characters, from those who sought refuge to those who stirred up trouble. Pancho Villa’s raid in 1916 left its mark, prompting a military response that echoes even now, given the importance of government and military jobs here. But it's not all conflict. We've also nurtured champions.

Bean, Roy C. S. A.

1861

Born in Kentucky. A trader in Mexico, 1848. Mining in New Mexico when Civil War broke out. As spy and scout, joined Texans in the Command of Gen. John R. Baylor during the 1861-1862 Arizona-New Mexico Campaign. Organized irregular company called "Free Rovers". In a narrow canyon, took part in capture of 800 federals by 250 Confederates. After 1862 was a Confederate freighter, hauling cotton to Matamoros from San antonio and bringing into Texas wartime goods: guns, ammunition, medicines, cloth, shoes, food. In 1882, began following with a tent saloon crews building railroad along the Rio Grande. Cooperating with Texas Rangers, was appointed justice of peace-- "Law West of the Pecos". Tamed rough frontier town of Langtry, where he spent rest of his life. Won fame in unique court decisions, as in trial and fining of a dead man for carrying a concealed wapon. Most widely celebrated show he staged was Fitzsimmons-Maher world championship boxing match, on a Rio Grande sand bar near his saloon in 1896. Court was held in the saloon, where he displayed pictures of "The Jersey Lily"--British actress Lily Langtry, whom he never met. She visited town at his invitation, but only after Judge Bean's death.

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Brinkley, John Romulus

1923

John Romulus (changed to John Richard) Brinkley, controversial medical charlatan, broadcaster, and political candidate, the only son of John and Candice (Burnett) Brinkley, was born near Beta, Jackson County, North Carolina, on July 8, 1885. He was orphaned at an early age and was raised by an aunt. He married Sally Wike in 1908, and they had three daughters. In 1913 that marriage ended in divorce, and Brinkley married Minnie Telitha Jones. They had a son. Brinkley was educated in a one-room school at Tuckasiegee, North Carolina, but never earned a diploma. From 1907 through 1915 he attended several diploma mills such as Bennett Medical College of Chicago and Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City. In spite of dubious credentials he was licensed by the state of Arkansas and set up a medical practice in Milford, Kansas. In 1918 he began performing his controversial "goat gland operation," designed to restore male virility and fertility by the implantation of goat glands. Before long more than 100 customers a week were receiving the $750 rejuvenation operation. As a result of the operations and a large patent medicine business, "Doc" Brinkley became extremely wealthy. In 1923 he constructed the first radio station in Kansas, KFKB, a powerful station that carried country music and fundamentalist preaching. In 1928 the American Medical Association's executive secretary, Dr. Morris Fishbein, attacked Brinkley for diagnosing illnesses and prescribing medicines over the radio. Consequently, in 1930 the Kansas State Medical Board revoked Brinkley's medical license, and the Federal Radio Commission refused to renew his broadcasting license. Brinkley responded by entering the governor's race, hoping to appoint new members to the medical board. Running as an independent, write-in candidate, he came extremely close to winning–his loss coming only because thousands of votes were thrown out on technicalities. Subsequent bids for the governorship in 1932 and 1934 also failed. In 1931 he received authority from Mexican officials to build a powerful transmitter at Villa Acuña, Mexico, across the river from Del Rio, Texas. In 1933 he moved his entire medical staff and facilities to the Roswell Hotel in Del Rio. He used his station, XER, to entice his listeners to visit his clinic or buy an array of gimmicks, among them ampules of colored water, at a price of six for $100. In Texas he rarely implanted goat glands, but substituted what he described as "commercial glandular preparations." He also performed numerous prostate operations and instituted the use of Mercurochrome shots and pills to help restore youthful vigor. Estimates are that he earned $12 million between 1933 and 1938. During this period his conspicuous display of wealth–a lavish mansion, expensive cars, planes, yachts, and diamonds–was second to none. In 1938 he moved his medical activities to Little Rock, Arkansas, but maintained his residence in Texas. About that time he lost a libel suit against Fishbein, fought numerous malpractice suits, and battled the Internal Revenue Service over back taxes. In 1941 he was forced to file for bankruptcy. The following year circulatory problems led to the amputation of one of his legs, and on May 26, 1942, he died in San Antonio of heart failure. He was buried in Memphis, Tennessee.

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XERF

1947

XERF was "border blaster" radio station AM 1570 out of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, across from Del Rio, Texas. The call letters were registered in 1947 and transferred to the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio in 1986. Beginning in the 1930s, high-powered radio stations operated from just across the Mexican border where they were not subject to American broadcasting regulations regarding power, frequency, and content. Along with its competitors, XERF's high-wattage transmissions could be heard across the United States and well into Canada. From the 1940s to the 1980s, XERF's strong signal and expansive programming helped promote a broad range of artists and musical genres, including country , rhythm-and-blues, and rock-and-roll . After World War II , longtime border radio men Don Howard and Walter Wilson joined forces with prominent Del Rio attorney Arturo González. In 1947 they acquired a Mexican radio license allowing them to begin broadcasting under the call letters XERF. With its transmitter in Ciudad Acuña in Coahuila, Mexico, XERF's business office was established for a time in the Roswell Hotel, across the Rio Grande from Acuña in Del Rio. (It was not uncommon for the stations, though their transmitters were in Mexico, to have their business headquarters across the border on American soil.) Following a series of disagreements and legal battles with his business partners, Arturo González emerged as the primary owner of XERF in the 1950s. González kept the station running until 1986. XERF initially used a 50,000-watt transmitter. By the early 1950s, the transmitter had been upgraded to a powerful 250,000 watts, which carried XERF programming to Korean War servicemen stationed at sea. The signal's range allowed disc jockey and radio personality Paul Kallinger to achieve national recognition as "Your Good Neighbor Along the Way." In addition to talk radio, the "Good Neighbor" promoted "hillbilly" and gospel music , both of which were emerging as mainstream genres in the 1950s. Kallinger promoted a number of prominent 1950s country singers including Webb Pierce, Jim Reeves , and Johnny Horton . In 1979 Kallinger was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in Nashville in recognition of his influence on the development of country music. XERF broadcast other types of programming, as well. For example, it sold airtime and advertising to mass-media evangelists who sought a larger audience than could be reached from conventional revival tents. XERF's evangelists and disc jockeys were also salesmen; the station generated revenue through large numbers of mail orders for a variety of quack medical products and cheap trinkets. In 1963 disc jockey Bob Smith gained a national following on XERF, where he developed his now legendary on-air personality, "Wolfman Jack," a figure immortalized in George Lucas's 1973 movie, American Graffiti . Without American FCC regulation to police content, the Wolfman's program included racy chatter and howling along with R&B and rock-and-roll songs. As a salesman, Wolfman Jack peddled mail-order merchandise, such as a hundred-pack of baby chicks, but he also sold rhythm-and-blues music collections, which, at the time, could not be found in most White-owned record stores. Using XERF's powerful signal, his unconventional program stretched the limits of acceptability and introduced Black music to a broad American audience, especially teenagers. The Wolfman worked at XERF for six months before he moved on to another border blaster in Tijuana, citing the pressures of the dangerous border environment, mordidas (bribes) paid to Mexican federales , and gangster activities. In his autobiography, Have Mercy!: Confessions of the Original Rock 'n' Roll Animal , Wolfman Jack described the XERF station as the location of shoot-outs and violent conflicts with both Mexican authorities and labor organizations. In a later interview, station owner Arturo González fondly recalled the Wolfman's on-air charis

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Dr. John R. Brinkley

1933

North Carolina native John R. Brinkley (1885-1942) opened a medical clinic and radio station in Kansas and promoted controversial medical practices, including one that used goat gland implants to increase sexual "pep" in men. He became rich but was criticized by the American Medical Association and the Federal Radio Commission. In 1933, he moved his family to Del Rio, opening a hospital and setting up the powerful radio station XER in Villa Acuña, Mexico. He was a colorful, charitable individual, known for his lavish lifestyle. He buoyed the local economy during the Great Depression and brought much attention to Del Rio. Despite fame and wealth, authorities shut down the Brinkley enterprise in 1938. (2004)

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Seminole-Negro Scouts

1870

Serving with the U. S. Army at Forts Duncan and Clark and Camp Del Rio (1870-1881). The Scouts were key figures in ridding Texas of hostile Indians. The 100 Scouts were mainly descendants of runaway slaves who had intermarried with the Florida Seminoles, later moved to Oklahoma Indian Territory. They were invaluable because of their uncanny trailing skill, bravery, and ability to survive on meager rations (including rattlesnakes) during months of tracking. During an 8-year span of fighting under Lt. J. L. Bullis, not one scout was killed. (1968)

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Camp Del Rio

1875

Camp Del Rio, located four miles from the Rio Grande at San Felipe Springs in Del Rio in Val Verde County, had several additional names by the U. S. Army-Post of San Felipe; Camp San Felipe; Camp U.S. Troops at Del Rio, Texas; and Camp Robert E. L. Michie. San Felipe Springs was the crucial military resource, a reliable water source, the third largest springs in Texas in an arid West Texas desert environment. The springs served as an important element of the San Antonio-El Paso military road beginning in 1850, and the small town of San Felipe del Rio grew up nearby after the Civil War . Responding to increasing American Indian and bandit raids from Mexico, the Buffalo Soldiers of Troops D, F, and I, Ninth Cavalry , from Fort Clark occupied the springs as a temporary outpost from November 1875 to January 1876. Capt. Joseph M. Kelley and his black soldiers of Troop E, Tenth Cavalry , returned to the springs on September 6, 1876, and established Post of San Felipe Springs, which was renamed Camp Del Rio in 1881 after the town was renamed. The San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Irrigation Company donated 407 acres for the main post site, and the U. S. Army leased for grazing another 2,391 acres from San Antonio businessman John Twohig and his partner Augustine Toutant de Beauregard. From its establishment in 1876 to the first closing in May 1891, Camp Del Rio generally remained a typical one-company frontier post occupied by cavalry troops from the Eighth Cavalry and Tenth Cavalry, and by infantry companies from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Fourth , and Twenty-Fifth Infantry regiments. After the first post closure in 1891, the donated land was eventually returned by the government to the San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Irrigation Company. From August to October 1907 the site was temporarily reoccupied by a troop of First Cavalry from Fort Clark, and on June 30, 1908, the post was reestablished by Capt. Casper H. Conrad and Troop A, Third Cavalry, soon joined by a company of the Twenty-Third Infantry. At the height of the Mexican Revolution in May 1916 to January 1917 Camp Del Rio became the regimental headquarters for the Fourteenth Cavalry commanded by Col. Frederick W. Sibley, who also commanded the Del Rio Border Patrol District. During this period the post reached a peak occupation of thirty officers and 844 soldiers, with five troops of cavalry, four infantry companies, and, at one point in the summer of 1916, two coast artillery companies converted to temporary infantrymen. During the Great Call-Up of 1916 when 156,414 national guardsmen were mobilized and rushed to border service, Camp Del Rio remained a regular army post, with no national guard units assigned. During World War I the post was primarily occupied by small companies of the Third Infantry. In the post-war period in April 1920, Camp Del Rio became the headquarters for the Twelfth Cavalry Regiment. On June 24, 1920, the post was renamed to honor Brig. Gen. Robert E. L. Michie who died in France in 1918. In the entire life of the post, most of the troops and officers were under canvas or in soldier-built buildings, having little or no Congressional-appropriated construction or permanent structures. Funded by the officers of the Twelfth Cavalry, in March 1921 the officers' club opened, and, with the local civilian elites, the officers voted to form a country club which became the San Felipe Country Club. Added as well was a nine-hole golf course, the first course built by John Bredemus who went on to design many notable courses such as the Colonial in Fort Worth. The Twelfth Cavalry officers' enjoyment of their new club was short-lived, as the regiment was ordered to Fort Brown seven months later in October 1921. With the departure of the Twelfth Cavalry, Camp Robert E. L. Michie was reduced to its original Post of San Felipe roots, a one-troop cavalry post with rotating units from the Fifth Cavalry at Fort Clark. On July 1

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Del Rio, Texas

Music in Del Rio

Songs About Del Rio

Artists From Del Rio

Rivers & Roads in Song near Del Rio

History of Del Rio

Del Rio, TX RoadyGoat

Bean, Roy C. S. A.

Brinkley, John Romulus

XERF

Dr. John R. Brinkley

Seminole-Negro Scouts

Camp Del Rio

Things to Do in Del Rio

Everything Near Del Rio