DEVIL'S RIVER, TEXAS

A Submerged Ghost Town

Texas Ghost Town
Val Verde County, West Texas

Under Amistad Reservoir

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The dramatic Lake Amistad eagles of Del Rio/ Ciudad Acuna.
Photo courtesy of Bill Sontag of Del Rio, Texas,
December 2007

History in a Pecan Shell

The town was once on the Southern Pacific Railroad and the lower Devils River and very near the border with Mexico.

Founded as a station on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway in 1882, Devil’s River once had a population estimated between 50 and 60.

But long before (6,000 years before) the railroad, the area had been occupied by people who left artifacts and rock paintings in the vicinity.

As a town, the new railroad connection offered prosperity and as late as the 1940s an estimated 20 families lived here. When the Amistad Dam and Reservoir were built, the entire town was flooded and is now underwater.

1940's Val Verde County map showing Devil's River (NW of Del Rio)
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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Devil's River, Texas Nearby Towns:
Del Rio the county seat
Val Verde County | West Texas

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