Zapata, Texas

Everything Zapata is known for

2 songs mention this city 5 artists from here

Zapata, Texas, a community known for its location on Falcon International Reservoir and its world-class bass fishing, also has a notable musical presence. Five artists call Zapata home, and three songs in our collection mention the town.

Among the artists from Zapata is the Grammy Award winning group Intocable, known for their regional Mexican music, specializing in norteño and Tejano. The song "Leavin' Texas" by Jerry Jeff Walker also includes a mention of Zapata.

Music in Zapata

Songs About Zapata

Honky Tonkin’ Around Texas
Aaron Watson
52%
"From Amarillo to Zapata"
leavin' texas
jerry jeff walker
10%

Artists From Zapata

I
Intocable
latin Pop: 74
G
Grupo Intocable
latin Pop: 70
R
Ricardo Muñoz
latin Pop: 54
R
Ramón Ayala
latin Pop: 50
M
Marco Regalado
latin Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Zapata

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Zapata.

Rio Grande / Río Bravo 83 songs Rio Grande / Río Bravo 144 songs Interstate 35 27 songs U.S. Route 59 3 songs

History of Zapata

Colonization of the Lower Rio Grande Area

1746

In 1746, Jose de Escandon was selected by Spanish officials to be chief colonizer for the lower Rio Grande Valley, then a part of Mexico's northern frontier. A native of Spain, Escandon (b. 1700) had proven himself a capable administrator and military leader as part of the Spanish forces in Mexico. Escandon took over 700 people, including missionaries, soldiers, and Indians, on his initial exploration of the area. His findings from this venture allowed him to complete his colonization plans. By 1748, thirteen settlements had begun in the area, which came to be called Nuevo Santander after Escandon's home province. A total of nineteen settlements, including Laredo, San Ygnacio, Falcon, and Lopeno, owe their foundings to Escandon. Escandon issued royal land grants in tracts known as "porciones," and in return the settlers were to fulfill certain requirements. The final inspection of the land grants, known as the General Visitation of 1767, marked the beginning of private and individual land ownership in this part of the state, as valid applicants were given possession of their "porciones." The colonization efforts also resulted in the farming and ranching settlements from which grew the immense cattle industry of South Texas. (1986)

Historical Marker →

Medina, TX

1980

Medina is at the intersection of State Highway 16 and Farm Road 337, twelve miles northwest of Bandera in central Bandera County. As early as 1865 a sawmill had been built in the area, and several families were settled nearby. The Medina post office was established in 1880, and by the end of the next decade the community had a gin, a corn mill, a hotel, a private bank, two churches, three general stores, and a population of 150. Many area residents raised stock as their primary occupation. By 1914 Medina had a population of 400; it fell to 250 in the early 1930s, when the Great Depression caused many residents to move away in search of jobs. The community recovered fairly rapidly, however, and had a variety of businesses, four churches, and 475 residents by the late 1940s. Most of the area land was devoted to livestock and to recreational hunting leases until the 1980s, when apple farming was introduced to the area. Baxter Adams, Jr., started an experimental orchard of dwarf apple trees in 1980, and the first apples were ready for sale in 1984. The dwarf trees produced regular-sized apples that were 40 percent sweeter than large-tree varieties and proved to be an extremely efficient use of the land, with 1,000 to 2,500 trees an acre. In 1989 the Texas Department of Agriculture declared Medina the Apple Capital of Texas. The 300,000 trees in the Medina area produced 100 tons of fruit in 1990, and more orchards were being planted each year. The annual Medina Apple Festival, held on the last Saturday of July, attracted 20,000 visitors in 1990. The population of Medina was listed as 515 in 1990, but the actual number of residents in Medina proper was closer to 250. By 2000 the population had more than doubled to 515 residents.

Tsha Handbook →

International Falcon Reservoir

1951

International Falcon Reservoir is located on the Rio Grande east of Zapata (its center point is 26°34' N, 99°10' W). The huge lake is bounded by Starr and Zapata counties, Texas, and the county and city of Nuevo Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The dam and reservoir provide for water conservation, flood control, hydroelectric energy, and recreation. The project is owned, authorized, and operated by the United States and Mexico through the International Boundary and Water Commission . The project is named for the relocated town of Falcon, which in turn was renamed in 1915 after the wife of founder José Eugenio Ramírez, María Rita de la Garza Falcón. The idea of a dam six miles east of the present site began about 1935, and the lake was approved by treaty at its present location in the late 1940s. Work began in 1951, and deliberate impoundment started on August 25, 1953. The reservoir was dedicated by presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adolfo Ruiz Cortines on October 19, 1953. The five-mile-long rolled earthfill and concrete embankment was completed on April 8, 1954. The first power was generated commercially on October 11, 1954. The dam is 150 feet above the riverbed, with a crest elevation of 323 feet above sea level. Almost two miles of the dam is in the United States, and nearly three miles is in Mexico. The cost of the lake to the United States was $35 million. Flood-control benefits to the United States had totaled $130 million by January 1, 1986. All lands on the United States side, except for Falcon State Park , are privately owned above 307 feet. Boating and fishing are common on the lake. Americans are allowed on both sides without immigration or customs inspection if they do not land in Mexico or take aboard anything from Mexico. Fishing is prohibited below the dam because of sudden water surges based on irrigation needs and controlled by computer from Brownsville. The area of the lake varies from 87,000 acres at elevation 301.2 feet to 115,400 acres at the maximum elevation of 314.2 feet. The reservoir has a summer storage capacity of 2,371,220 acre-feet. Each country has three 14,750-horsepower turbines running three 10,500-kilowatt generators at each plant. Four units are possible if needed. Under terms of the treaty the United States receives 58.6 percent of the conservation storage and Mexico 41.4 percent; financing of the project was based on the same percentages. The drainage area above the dam is 164,482 square miles; 87,760 is in the United States and 76,722 in Mexico. The United States side provides nine public access areas, including the dam itself, along which runs a two-lane highway connecting Farm Road 2098 and Mexican Highway 2.

Tsha Handbook →

Trevino Circle T Ranch

1760

The Treviño Circle T Ranch, one mile west of Zapata in west central Zapata County, was founded by Bartolomé de Lizarraras y Cuellar and María Gregoria Martínez. Lizarraras was a member of the Cuellar and García families, the original settlers of Saltillo, Coahuila. The Lizarraras family was among those who took part in the colonization of Nuevo Santander under José de Escandón . They settled in Villa Revilla (present-day Guerrero) and were assigned porción 37, which comprised 7,085.41 acres. The tract came to be called Capitaneño. Don Bartolomé raised cattle, goats and sheep and grew vegetables and hay. The family eventually moved across the river to what is now Zapata County, Texas, where their earliest buildings date to the 1760s. The floors of the structures were made of clay or flagstone; each of the dwellings had a fireplace for cooking and heating as well as loopholes through which muskets could be fired. In 1767 Lizarraras was granted another tract by the Spanish crown. After his death his ranch passed to his son José Miguel, who already owned two porciones . The younger Lizarraras completed construction on the ranch's buildings and with his wife, María Gertrudis González, had six children, of whom José Antonio inherited Capitaneño at his father's death in 1816. John James Audubon is said to have visited the ranch to sketch roadrunners for his Birds of America . The next to manage the ranch was Juan Nepomuceno Lizarraras, who inherited it in 1859. He and his wife, Nepomucena Ochoa, kept the ranch going through the Civil War . Upon his death in 1889 the ranch was divided, and 943 acres went to Nepomuceno's son Manuel. In 1922 Luisa, daughter of Manuel and Nepomucena Ochoa Treviño, inherited 132 acres, on which she and her husband, Filiberto Treviño, continued to raise cattle and crops. During the early 1950s most of the ranch was inundated by the International Falcon Reservoir . All the original buildings were submerged, but the family was able to save a mesquite door and some hand-hewn sandstone that was subsequently used in constructing the present ranchhouse. In 1959 Antonio Treviño, one of Luisa and Filiberto's nine children, acquired eleven acres of his mother's land and added 117 more acres of the original grant, which he bought from an uncle. Antonio, with his wife Evangelina González, raised horses and cattle and grew hay and had the land resurveyed. They also built a house, fences, pens, and barns and dug a tank; more recently, they drilled a water well and a gas well.

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Mission Revilla a Visita

1750

Established in 1750 as a part of Jose de Escandon's project to settle the region and civilize and Christianize the Indians. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Historical Marker →

Old Ramireño

1784

Old Ramireño was located on land granted to Don Jose Luis Ramirez by the King of Spain in 1784. Part of the colonization effort of Col. Jose de Escandon, Ramirez' grant was designated as Porcion 5. A resident of Revilla (now Guerrero), Nuevo Santander (now Tamaulipas) in Mexico, Don Jose Luis Ramirez, his wife Maria Bacilia Martinez, and their children moved across the Rio Grande and established a home on their land in present Zapata County. Don Jose Luis and Maria Bacilia Martinez Ramirez had ten children. Their families and descendants formed the nucleus of the community of Ramireño. The men of the ill-fated Mier Expedition of 1842 camped at Ramireño during their march to Mexico, and the settlement was also the site of United States military activity during the Mexican Revolution and border raids of 1916-17. The construction of Falcon Reservoir on the Rio Grande caused the relocation of several area communities, including Ramireño. The settlement founded by Don Jose Luis Ramirez was moved in 1953 to a site two miles from the original Ramirez Ranch. The hand-cut sandstone Ramirez Ranch Home was covered by the waters of Falcon Reservoir. (1988)

Historical Marker → · 9.7 mi away

Everything Near Zapata

31 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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