|
Historical Marker:
7 miles S of Marfa on
US 67, then 24 miles S on FM 169 to Alamito Creek
Site of Alamito
Alamito Creek has
been a passageway and the scene of human activity since prehistoric
times. Spanish explorers began traveling through the region in 1535.
Mexican families began to settle in the area about 1715 and established
rancheros despite an Apache presence. Beginning in the 1850s, the
infamous Chihuahua Trail, a route for heavy freight wagons from San
Antonio to Chihuahua, Mexico, passed near Alamito. By 1870 Alamito
was a community with several families farming and working on nearby
ranches.
John Davis, a pioneer from North Carolina, was a strong community
leader. He married Francisca Herrera, the daughter of Carlos Herrera,
one of the first Spanish settlers of Alamito, in 1875. They built
a home with a chapel, one-room school, and a canal for crop irrigation.
Davis was known for serving peach brandy to weary travelers who came
through on the Chihuahua Trail. Francisca died in 1892 and was buried
near the chapel in Alamito. The grief-stricken Davis went back to
North Carolina and never returned to this area.
he legendary railroad known as the "Road to Topolabampo" was the result
of a longtime dream of A. E. Stilwell, railroad builder and urban
promoter, for a rail line from Kansas City to Mexico's west coast.
It passed through Alamito in 1930. The Railroad dug a deep well, constructed
a tank to water the steam engines, built a section house for workers,
and renamed the site Plata.
At the end of the 20th century, only ruins of the Davis-Herrera home,
school, cemetery and canal remain. Ruts of the Chihuahua Trail can
still be seen in the bedrock north of Alamito.
(2000) |
 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
|
|
HOME
