Chimney Park / Site of Mission Canal Co. Pumping Plant

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1907, two men named John J. Conway and James W.

Hoit set something in motion out here in Hidalgo County that the land itself still remembers. They started the Mission Canal Co. Irrigation System, and if you want to talk about early agricultural growth in this area, well, you pretty much have to start right here.

This was ground zero. Now, they didn't just draw up plans and walk away. They built a pump station, right here, by hand.

The bricks came from Madero, shaped by hand, stacked by hand, mortared into something meant to last. And last it did. The crown of the whole operation was a chimney, one hundred and six feet tall.

Think about that the next time you're looking for something to orient yourself by. One hundred and six feet of brick, climbing up into the South Texas sky, carrying smoke from wood-fired boilers down below. Those boilers produced steam, and that steam drove the pump, and that pump pushed water out through the canal system and into fields that had no business growing anything without it.

That's the whole chain, fire to smoke to steam to water to life. The plant didn't stay in Conway and Hoit's hands forever. John H.

Shary operated it after them, and then it passed to Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement Districts No. 7 and No. 14. The work kept going because the water still needed moving. Then, in the late 1950s, a new pumping plant was built upstream.

And when that happened, this old station, the one built from handmade brick with that great tall chimney standing watch, got a second life. The property was developed for recreational use. A place that once ran on fire and steam became a park.

The chimney's still the tallest thing in the story, and it earned that.

What the marker says

In 1907, John J. Conway and James W. Hoit began the Mission Canal Co. Irrigation System, which was instrumental in the early agricultural growth of the area. Here they built the first pump station out of hand made brick from Madero. The 106-ft. chimney carried smoke from wood-fired boilers which produced steam to drive the pump. The plant was later operated by John H. Shary and by Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement Districts No. 7 and No. 14. The property was developed for recreational use after a new pumping plant was built upstream in the late 1950s. (1985)