DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about El Paso de Jacinto, out in Webb County. Now, before there were bridges, before there were ferries, before anybody had drawn a single line on a map of this stretch of the Rio Grande, people were crossing it. And they were crossing it right here — or close enough to here that it matters.
Around 1746, a man named Jacinto de Leon discovered a ford in this vicinity. A natural crossing. The kind of place where the river gentled itself just enough to let you and your animals wade over without losing everything you owned to the current.
But the marker is careful to point out: he discovered it for the record. Indigenous cultures had probably been using that same ford for centuries before Jacinto de Leon ever set foot near the water. The crossing came to be known as Paso de Jacinto.
And around it — the way settlements have a habit of doing — a community began to grow. That community was Laredo, and it started as a ranch established by a man named Tomas Tadeo Sanchez de la Barrera. Now, here's where the story gets a little winding, the way a river road does.
In 1754, a colonizer by the name of Jose de Escandon asked Sanchez to go find a suitable place for a settlement along the Nueces River. Sanchez went looking. He did not find what he was after.
The Nueces didn't cooperate. So instead, in May of 1755, Sanchez settled along the Rio Grande — downstream of Paso de Jacinto. Sometimes the river you're standing next to beats the river you were sent to find.
Two years after that settlement took root, a man named Agustin Lopez de la Camara Alta came through and wrote down what he saw. He reported that the settlement at the crossing had become important — not just locally important, but important in sustaining what had grown into a major business and military route across the Rio Grande. He also noted what the settlers were up to: mainly breeding cattle and gathering salt from regional salt lakes.
And when a census was taken that same year, the residents' animals numbered more than ten thousand. Most of them were smaller livestock — sheep and goats — but ten thousand animals is ten thousand animals. This place was working.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, something interesting had happened to the name. Maps were now calling the crossing "Paso de los Indios." And a hundred years after that, the "Old Indian Crossing" had become a well-known landmark near the northern edge of Fort McIntosh. There was even a nearby ranch that carried the name — Rancho Paso de los Indios — as if the land itself wanted to make sure nobody forgot what this place had always been.
Laredo today, the marker tells us, features many reminders of the impact of — and the need for — routes across that river. And it all traces back to a ford. A natural place where the water said, come on across.
Been sayin' it for centuries.
What the marker says
Throughout history, travelers sought natural fords that allowed safe passage across rivers and streams. Around 1746, Jacinto de Leon discovered such a crossing in this vicinity; it was probably used for centuries before that by indigenous cultures. The ford came to be known as Paso de Jacinto, and around it grew the Laredo community, which began as a ranch established by Tomas Tadeo Sanchez de la Barrera. In 1754, colonizer Jose de Escandon asked Sanchez to find a place for a settlement along the Nueces River. Sanchez failed to identify a suitable location on the Nueces, though, and instead settled in May 1755 along the Rio Grande downstream of Paso de Jacinto. Two years later, Agustin Lopez de la Camara Alta reported that the settlement at the crossing was important in sustaining what had become a major business and military route across the Rio Grande. He also stated that the settlers’ pursuits mainly involved breeding cattle and gathering salt from regional salt lakes. Most of the residents’ more than 10,000 animals recorded in a census that year were smaller livestock, such as sheep and goats. By the turn of the 19th century, maps indicated the crossing as “Paso de los Indios,” and 100 years later, the “Old Indian Crossing” was a well-known landmark near the northern edge of Fort McIntosh. A nearby ranch known as Rancho Paso de los Indios also indicates the significance of the crossing in the history of Laredo, which today features many reminders of the impact of and need for routes across the river. (2006)