Falfurrias to Encino Road

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now, you might glance out your window right now and see nothing but a quiet stretch of asphalt, same as a thousand other roads in South Texas. But that little ribbon of roadway you're passing, that right there is something worth slowing down for.

What you're looking at is one of the earliest chapters in the whole story of the Texas Highway Department. The department itself had only been established one year, just one year, when in 1918 the plans were drawn up for the Brooks County segment of what would become U.S. 281. One year old, and they were already laying out roads through this country.

Now, what they built in 1918 was not exactly the highway of your dreams. It was a soft sand thoroughfare. Soft.

Sand. Running all the way down to Encino, six and a half miles south of here. You want to talk about ambition outpacing resources, well, there it is.

But the story doesn't stop there. By 1920, somebody made the sensible decision to apply a caliche surface, which is a real upgrade from loose sand, I'll tell you that. And then in 1928, the concrete paving you can still see out there, that was laid down, and it has been holding its ground ever since.

That's what makes this stretch remarkable. It isn't just a road. It's a record, layer by layer, of how early Texans figured out how to connect this part of the state to the Rio Grande Valley.

The sand, the caliche, the concrete. Each one a different answer to the same stubborn question: how do you get there from here?

What the marker says

Visible from this site is a small section of roadway that dates from the earliest efforts of the State Highway Program to oversee road construction. In 1918, one year after the establishment of the Texas Highway Department, plans were drawn for the Brooks County segment of what would become U.S. 281. That portion of the road constructed in 1918 was a soft sand thoroughfare terminating at Encino (6.5 mi. S). A caliche surface was applied in 1920, and the concrete paving now in evidence was laid in 1928. The remaining portion of the Falfurrias to Encino Road is a reminder of early road construction methods and transportation networks into the Rio Grande Valley. (2002)