Del Rio

Del Rio is a city in and the county seat of Val Verde County, Texas. It is 152 miles west of San Antonio. As of 2015, the city had a population of 40,549. Del Rio is connected with Ciudad Acuña via the Lake Amistad Dam International Crossing and Del Río – Ciudad Acuña International Bridge. Del Rio is also home to Laughlin Air Force Base, the busiest United States Air Force pilot training complex in the world.HistoryThe Spanish established a small settlement south of the Rio Grande in present-day Mexico, and some Spaniards settled on what became the United States side of the Rio Grande as early as the 18th century. Paula Losoya Taylor built the first hacienda in the area in 1862. U.S. development on the north shore of the Rio Grande did not begin until after the American Civil War.The San Felipe Springs, about 8mi east of the Rio Grande on the U.S. side of the border, produces 90e6USgal of water a day. Developers acquired several thousand acres of land adjacent to the springs, and to San Felipe Creek formed by the springs, from the State of Texas in exchange for building a canal system to irrigate the area. The developers sold tracts of land surrounding the canals to recover their investment and show a profit. The initial investors (William C. Adams, John P. Grove, Donald Jackson, John Perry, Joseph Ney, Randolph Pafford, A. O. Strickland, and James H Taylor) formed the San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Irrigation Company in 1868. The organization completed construction of a network of irrigation canals in 1871. Residents referred to the slowly developing town as San Felipe Del Rio because local lore said the name came from early Spanish explorers who offered a Mass at the site on St. Philip's Day, 1635.