Name: Riviera, Texas
Address: Riviera, TX

Riviera, TX RoadyGoat

Riviera's history began in 1906 when land promoter Theodore Fredrick Koch founded the town. He purchased land from the King Ranch to sell to settlers and built a townsite along the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway. Riviera initially grew, but faced challenges with a drought in 1915 and a devastating hurricane in 1916. The construction of U.S. Highway 77 later helped revive the economy. Today, farming is a key industry in Riviera.

Riviera, TX RoadyGoat

Riviera was founded in 1906 by Theodore Fredrick Koch, a land promoter. He purchased land from the King Ranch to sell to landseekers and built a townsite along the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway.

Riviera, TX RoadyGoat

The economy of Riviera now depends on farming. It is also the last stop for about 60 miles to Raymondville, going south, so its gas stations and restaurants are used by many travelers heading in that direction.

Indian Burial Ground (Dietz Archeological Site)

1528

Centuries old, this burial ground was once used by the primitive Karankawa Indians. A little-known group, this coastal tribe cared for Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca when he was shipwrecked in Texas in 1528. Although previously looted, the site produced over 20 skeletons when excavated by archeologists in 1927 and later. Also found were large quantities of burned human bones (suggesting ritual cannibalism), potsherds, arrowpoints, flint tools, fire implements, and shells. European explorers found the Karankawas unusually tall and muscular, but were repelled by their habits of tattooing and painting their bodies and smearing themselves with alligator grease to keep off insects. Much ritual attended Karankawa death, especially that of boys and young men, who were mourned for an entire year. Three times a day the family wept for the departed youth. After a year, the mourners purified themselves with smoke in a special rite. Ordinary persons were buried in shallow graves with some tools and ornaments, but shamans (medicine men) were cremated during a ceremonial dance. Never very numerous, the Karankawas drifted into Mexico after the white man's diseases and enmity reduced them to a handful of survivors.

Historical Marker →

U.S. Army March to the Rio Grande

1845

Battle road of General Zachary Taylor and largest U.S. Army fielded in first half of the 19th century. After annexation of former Republic of Texas was approved in 1845, the United States sent Taylor to occupy area below the Nueces-- to support claim to all land east of the Rio Grande. In August 1845 he reached Corpus Christi where he waited while U.S. and Mexico tried to reach boundary agreement. He also sent out engineers to map a road parallel to the Gulf, where the U.S. Navy watched the crisis. His army-- including on its rosters two later U.S. presidents and later many statesmen and generals-- drilled throughout a rainy winter. On orders from Washington, it moved toward Rio Grande in March 1846. Along its path were few people but much game-- wild cattle, antelope, deer, mustang horses, wild turkeys. Although challenged about 70 miles south of here by a Mexican patrol, Taylor proceeded to occupy Rio Grande Valley. April attacks and may battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma caused the United States to declare war. Afterward many troops took this road and joined the fighting, which fixed the Rio Grande as boundary and gained for U.S. lands now in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico.

Historical Marker → · 4.2 mi away

Vattman, TX

1907

Vattman is at the intersection of Farm roads 626 and 772, sixteen miles southeast of Kingsville in Kleberg County. In 1907 Theodore F. Koch , a land developer from Minnesota, purchased a large tract of land from the King Ranch . Shortly after acquiring the land he established the town of Riviera on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, five miles southwest of the site of Vattman. The Koch Land Company ran trains once or twice a month to Riviera carrying persons who were shown the land and encouraged to buy it. In his search for prospective buyers, Koch approached Father Edward J. Vattmann, the secretary of the Catholic Colonization Society of America, to try to interest him in sending Catholic families to the Riviera community. A committee of the Catholic organization visited Koch's land and was impressed with the Riviera area. As a result the society began encouraging Catholic families to move there. The first German Catholic family came from Westphalia, Texas, and purchased land. Edward J. May came in 1908 and bought forty acres. Then several German-American Catholic families from Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio came. Among these were Jacob and Edward Hubert and Leonard L. Huff. In 1909 the Koch Land Company and the Catholic Colonization Society constructed a frame building as a place of worship. Following the 1916 hurricane the citizens built Our Lady of Consolation Church and a parish school. The social life of inhabitants centered mainly around the church and school. The settlers named the community Vattmannville (later shortened to Vattmann) after Father Vattmann, who accompanied them to the site. A one-room public school that offered classes through the eighth grade was constructed and was expanded from time to time to accommodate the growing number of children. In 1948 the public school was consolidated with the Riviera school. In the early days vegetable growing and dairying were the main industries of the people living around Vattmannville. During the 1920s May supplemented his farming income by operating a store. Annually, on Thanksgiving Day, the members of the church serve a dinner prepared by the women of the community, and people from all over the area come to celebrate. Except for one year during World War II , this event has occurred every year. By 1989 it attracted about 2,000 people. From 1939 to 1948 the population of Vattman was estimated at twenty. In 1989 it was fifteen. The population reached 125 by 2000.

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Camp Boveda

1863

On December 23, 1863, Capt. Jas. Speed of Gen. Napoleon J. T. Dana's Brownsville-based Federal army force raided unguarded King Ranch. Objectives were to capture or kill Capt. Richard King and destroy the Confederate cotton trade. King, forewarned, evaded the enemy. At King Ranch, the raiders killed Francisco Alvarado; captured C.S.A. Captains John Brown, Alvin Dix, W. S. Gregory and Jas. McClearly and Chaplain Hiram Chamberlain; rifled all buildings; dispersed ranch employees; declared the slaves free; confiscated all horses and mules; impounded Confederate government cotton, promising that if it were moved or burned, King's life would be the forfeit; and threatened further raids from Boveda by Col. E. J. Davis, former South Texas attorney turned Federal officer. Mrs. King and children moved to San Antonio for the war's duration; soon Col. J. S. "RIP" Ford's Confederate cavalry came to protect the cotton road and ranch. At Camp (Rancho) Boveda, near a ford on Los Olmos Creek, were seven cypress-walled water wells, possibly used by Gen. Zachary Taylor in 1846. Campsite is 2-1/2 miles east of this point, on lot 2, block 15, Koch subdivision number one, present Poteet Ranch.

Historical Marker →

Koch, Theodore F.

1906

Theodore Koch, land developer, was born on April 1, 1854, in Looward Castle in the Netherlands. He sailed to the United States in 1884 and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he promoted the purchase of land in the area by settlers. In 1887 he married Clara Hoeborn; they had three children. When land for sale became scarce in the Midwest, Koch sought land elsewhere. On a trip to South Texas in 1906, he met Robert Kleberg, Jr. , who told him that Henrietta King , owner of the King Ranch , intended to sell some of her land. While he was in Texas, Koch also visited Victoria and investigated available land in that area. He then went to Germany, where he induced some German businessmen to provide the capital for him to purchase 40,000 acres in Texas. He returned to Texas in 1907 and purchased about 20,000 acres of land in the southern part of Nueces County from Mrs. King. He also bought land at Palacios and at Winnie, near Beaumont. In promoting the sale of his Texas land, Koch opened offices in St. Paul, Chicago, Beaumont, Houston, and Riviera. Sales went well until 1915, when a hurricane hit the Winnie area. Many of the landowners became discouraged and left. To make matters worse, another hurricane struck the Riviera region the next year, doing great damage and slowing the area's growth. Koch suffered further reverses during World War I , when the Alien Property Board froze the German capital he had been using for his land speculation. Seeking to recover financially, he established a fig farm at Winnie in 1922. Although the business prospered, Koch benefited more from oil leases on his property. He died on September 19, 1940, on a visit to New Braunfels.

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Riviera, Texas

Music in Riviera

Songs About Riviera

Artists From Riviera

Rivers & Roads in Song near Riviera

History of Riviera

Riviera, TX RoadyGoat

Riviera, TX RoadyGoat

Riviera, TX RoadyGoat

Indian Burial Ground (Dietz Archeological Site)

U.S. Army March to the Rio Grande

Vattman, TX

Camp Boveda

Koch, Theodore F.

Things to Do in Riviera

Everything Near Riviera