Name: Dilley, Texas
Address: Dilley, TX

Dilley, TX RoadyGoat

Dilley is a place where the mesquite trees stubbornly hold their ground against the Texas sun, and where the roar of I-35 is a constant, low hum in the background. It might seem like just another small town you pass through on your way somewhere else, but Dilley holds its own stories. You can feel the history in the air, a sense of deep roots and close ties. It's a place where Friday night lights shine bright on the Dilley Wolves, and the whole town seems to gather to cheer them on. And every now and then, one of our own goes on to make a name for themselves.

Engineering the Winter Garden RoadyGoat

As you look at the dry-looking brush country around Dilley, it’s hard to picture this area as a lush garden. But for a time, it was. The transformation was a feat of hydrology and engineering. In the early 1900s, developers realized that a vast, hidden resource lay beneath this land: the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, a massive underground formation of water-bearing sand. The STEM challenge was getting the water out. Using the technology of the day—steam-powered and then gasoline-powered pumps—they drilled hundreds of wells. They engineered canals and irrigation systems to spread the water across thousands of acres. This completely re-engineered the local ecology, allowing them to grow thirsty crops like Bermuda onions and spinach in the middle of a semi-arid region. It was this mastery of groundwater hydrology that created the 'Winter Garden of Texas' and fueled Dilley’s first economic boom, all based on the science of bringing underground water to the surface.

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The Courthouse That Lost a Floor RoadyGoat

The buff-brick building anchoring the square in the center of Pearsall is the Frio County Courthouse, and it doesn't quite look the way it was born. San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps designed it in the Renaissance Revival style, and it was completed in 1904, a confident three-story statement that the county seat had truly arrived. A tall central tower once rose over the north side, and a hipped roof capped the whole thing. Then time and budgets went to work. In the 1930s, during a wave of remodeling, the courthouse lost its entire third floor and its hipped roof, and the windows were swapped out; further alterations followed in 1950. What stands today is a lower, plainer two-story version of Phelps's original, its grand tower long gone. It's a common Texas story, a turn-of-the-century courthouse trimmed down to save money over the decades, but it means the building you see has quietly shed some of its old ambition. Look at an old photo of the original three-story design and you'll realize Pearsall's courthouse used to reach a good deal higher. (Source: 254 Texas Courthouses; Texas Escapes.)

RoadyGoat → · 15.3 mi away

Japanese Macaque

1972

Japanese macaques, commonly known as snow monkeys, are native to Japan, but a population has lived in South Texas since the 1970s. These primates' thick fur enables them to withstand harsh winters and ranges in color from shades of gray to yellowish brown to brown. They have hairless faces and pinkish-red posteriors. Males are taller and heavier than females. The average male weighs approximately twenty-five pounds and stands almost two feet tall, while the average female weighs roughly eighteen pounds and stands approximately twenty inches tall. Japanese macaques reside in the subtropical to subalpine deciduous and evergreen forests on three of Japan's four main islands (Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) and a few smaller islands, including the mountainous region known as Arashiyama near Kyoto. There are two subspecies of the primates- M. f. fuscata and M. f. yuakui . M. f. fuscata , the mainland subspecies, was the one brought to Texas; M. f. yuakui is restricted to the island of Yakushima. In 1966 the troop of monkeys in Arashiyama had grown to between 150 and 200 members and soon broke into two smaller groups, Arashiyama A-troop and B-troup. The A-troop extended its range into the suburbs of Kyoto, and the primates were regarded as a nuisance to residents there. After six years of searching for a new home, to save them from destruction in Kyoto, the troop known as Arashiyama A, consisting of approximately 150 animals, was transferred to a ranch near Encinal in La Salle County in South Texas in 1972. Many transplanted primates died in the unfamiliar dry brush country during the early years. The U.S. government listed the monkeys as threatened in 1976.The Japanese macaques, however, eventually adapted to their new environment and learned to forage for the readily available cactus fruits, mesquite beans, and other foods. In 1980 the South Texas Primate Observatory purchased the primates and moved them to a ranch near Dilley in Frio County, where they resided in an enclosed ranch-style environment and could roam with minimum human interference. By the late 1980s the South Texas population of Japanese macaques had increased to more than 500. The monkeys' enclosure fell into disrepair because of a lack of funding and several escaped. No longer enclosed within physical barriers, the primate population ranged over 250 acres of brush country ranchland and foraged on native vegetation, row crops, and feed pilfered from area ranches and farms. Neighbors called the authorities to complain about feral monkeys damaging property outside the observatory. Even though the troop's leader was reportedly killed by a wild cat (a bobcat or cougar), the population remained between 500 and 600 individuals. The troop had to be relocated on two more occasions until it finally ended up on another site in Dilley that became known as the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary. In 1994 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the Dilley troop of macaques was not a protected species, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed that there was no state or federal law prohibiting the shooting of feral macaques because they were classified as an "exotic unprotected species." At this time the U.S. Department of Agriculture pressured for improvements to the Dilley facility and cited its failures to provide adequate housing for the snow monkeys or to build a secure perimeter fence. Public outcry arose in 1996 when hunters shot four escaped macaques, and there were calls for a new sanctuary. Consequently, entertainer Wayne Newton hosted a fundraiser in San Antonio to raise awareness and money for their cause. Eventually a new 185-acre sanctuary, the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary, near Dilley was established. The larger more secure facility consisted of an electrified enclosure where the macaques could forage through vegetation, sleep in trees, swim in water tanks, and exist within a social unit. The Animal Protection Institute assumed management of the Texas Snow M

Tsha Handbook →

William A. Waugh

1849

(1832-1901) An Ohio native who found gold in California in 1849, William A. Waugh settled near the Cibolo Creek Crossing on the Laredo-San Antonio Road in 1856, before La Salle County was created. Waugh served briefly as a Texas Ranger during the border raids called the Cortina War. He was also a merchant, district court clerk, and justice of the peace. Father of three daughters and a son, Waugh contributed significantly to progress in this locality.

Historical Marker → · 6.8 mi away

Frio Town, TX

1871

Frio Town, originally known as Frio City, was a frontier community off Farm Road 140 immediately south of the Presidio Crossing of the Frio River, sixteen miles northwest of Pearsall in northwest Frio County. The Presidio Crossing, on the Old San Antonio Road , was so named because numerous cannonballs, swords, and sabers were found there. Juan de Ugalde in the eighteenth century, Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1836, and Adrián Woll in 1842 are thought to have used the crossing. The town was laid out by A. L. Odin in 1871. The first mail was delivered to the community on horseback from Benton City; later it arrived from San Antonio by stage. Frio City became the first county seat of Frio County in 1871. Builder L. J. W. Edwards used cypress shingles carted from Leakey to complete the first courthouse in January 1872. The same year a stone jail was constructed; in time it housed such famous personages as Sam Bass , Jesse and Frank James, and William Sydney Porter . The high cost of obtaining building materials from outside led to the establishment of a cypress-shingle mill, brick factory, and limekiln in the community. A Frio City post office was established in 1872 with James McClain Elledge as the first postmaster. Levi J. W. Edwards was the first merchant. The county's first school was in a private home. A local Masonic lodge was established during the 1870s. The courthouse burned in 1877, and a new two-story native stone building was constructed with the financial assistance of local resident W. J. Slaughter; it reportedly had an ornate walnut staircase. Comanche Indian raids in the mid-1870s triggered a call for the Texas Rangers and caused many frightened settlers to seek refuge in town. The last Indian foray in the area occurred during the spring of 1877. Frio City was a "cowboy capital" and outpost cultural center during the 1870s. Estimates of its population in the early 1880s reach as high as 1,500. Evangelists John Wesley DeVilbiss and Andrew Jackson Potter preached in the area; the Rio Grande Baptist Association was organized at the courthouse in 1880. That year the International-Great Northern Railroad was extended through Frio County and missed Frio City. In the summer of 1881 Pearsall was established on the route, after which a general exodus from Frio City to Pearsall ensued. In 1883 Pearsall became the county seat, and in 1886 the name Frio City was changed to Frio Town. The courthouse was purchased in 1884 by W. Yancey Kilgore. It subsequently housed a general store, the post office, and in 1884 Frio Academy. By 1890 the population was estimated at 100. In 1906 seventeen pupils attended the two-teacher Frio Academy. By 1914 Frio Town had telephone connections, a general store, and six cattle breeders. In 1929 the community comprised the school and five dwellings. The old courthouse was the site of the Rio Grande Baptist Association's fiftieth anniversary celebration in June 1930. By 1953 Mrs. A. C. Roberts owned most of the structures of the generally abandoned townsite, including the courthouse and roofless jailhouse. The population of Frio Town remained constant at an estimated twenty throughout the 1960s and increased to forty-nine in 1969. By 1990 all that remained was the Frio Town Cemetery on Farm Road 140 and the largely intact remains of the original courthouse and jail on the Roberts Ranch.

Tsha Handbook → · 13.8 mi away

Cotulla Ranch

1863

Polish immigrant Joseph Cotulla (1844-1922) came to America in 1856, traveling with his family by ship and oxcart. He worked on area ranches and registered his own brand, the BAR JF, in 1863. Joseph enlisted in the First Texas Cavalry of the Union Army and served for two years during the Civil War. He drove cattle from the Nueces River to Kansas for several years. He started an area ranch with four other men in 1869 before establishing his own ranch in 1874. Cotulla continued to buy land and amassed more than 30,000 acres in La Salle, Dimmit and Webb counties. He donated 120 acres of the ranch to the railroad in 1881 to develop a townsite, which bears his name and became La Salle county seat. The original ranch land remains in the family today. (2009)

Historical Marker → · 17.1 mi away

Welhausen School

1926

Designed by Austin architect Charles H. Page, this brick schoolhouse was completed in 1926 and named for County Judge G. A. Welhausen (1862-1944). Twenty-year-old Lyndon B. Johnson came to Cotulla in 1928-29 and served as teacher and principal at the school, which served the city's Hispanic students for many years. Built in a classically inspired plan with a central block flanked by two low wings, the building features decorative tile panels. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990

Historical Marker → · 17.4 mi away

Dilley, Texas

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