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Early
Beginnings Del Rio's original name
was San Felipe del Rio (Saint Phillip of the River). The name was
given to the area by some early Spanish missionaries who arrived
here on St. Phillips's Day in 1635. Their mission was destroyed
by hostile Indians, but the name survived until 1883 when the first
post office was established.
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Army Days
In the 1850's, a line of U.S. Calvary
posts was built along the Southwest border region of the United
States to guard the border and protect the transportation routes
from hostile Indians. Fort Clark, built in 1852, in the nearby town
of Brackettville, still stands. George Patton and Jonathan Wainwright
served there.
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Judge
Roy Bean Formed from the Pecos, Kinney,
and Crockett counties, Val Verde officially became a county in 1885
and is 3,242 square miles in area (which is three times the size
of Rhode Island). Election records from that year show that Langtry
citizen Roy Bean was elected to serve as Justice of the Peace.
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Border
Blasting Radio Not far from the museum,
on Qualia Drive, is the house of the late Dr. John R. Brinkley.
Brinkley became a most colorful and controversial figure during
the 1930's. Not long after moving to Del Rio, Brinkley replaced
his infamous goat gland operations with a commercially available
injection that was combined with other surgical procedures.
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The U.S. Air
Force Comes to Town
In 1942, the Army Air Corps opened Laughlin Field
as a training base for the Martin B-26, but it was inactivated in
1945. As the Cold War pressures built, Laughlin Field was rebuilt
and renamed Laughlin Air Force Base. It was again used as a home
for flying training. In the mid-1950s, the Strategic Air Command
noted Laughlin's remoteness that allowed for secret operations,
and opened its strategic reconnaissance program there.
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The
Great Acuña Flood of 1954
June 26, 1954 (Hurricane Alice): This storm quickly
developed off Brownsville. It made landfall within 24 hours of formation.
Most residents did not know about it until it was upon them. Heavy
rains near Langtry resulted in 27.10" of rain at Pandale. This caused
the greatest rise on the Rio Grande since 1865. The river rose 30
to 60 feet at Eagle Pass and Laredo. An 86' wall of water rushed
down the Pecos River; this washed out a bridge normally 50' above
it.
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The
Amistad Dam The Amistad Dam was a
cooperative undertaking of the American and Mexican sections of
the International Boundary and Water Commission. It is 12 miles
upstream on the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, and Ciudad Acuña,
Coahuila, Mexico., U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower, and Mexican
President Lopez Mateos met in Ciudad Acuña on October 24, 1960,
to sign the initial agreements authorizing the construction of the
dam.
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