Lajitas Cemetery

Duane's take

The marker at Lajitas Cemetery is where I'm drawing this story from, so let's see what the official record has to say. Now, there's a word you ought to know before we go any further: Lajitas. It's the Spanish word for flagstone, and it comes from the Boquillas Geologic Formation.

That's the same stone that today forms the columns of the cemetery fence — connected by wrought iron, standing quiet out there near the Rio Grande. The land has a long memory, and the cemetery is part of it. The crossing that gave this place its life is called the Lajitas Crossing, also known as the San Carlos ford.

For millennia — and I do mean millennia — the natives of this region used that ford. The Comanche, the Apache, and other tribes crossed it during raids into northern New Spain and Mexico. That river crossing wasn't just a convenience.

It was a corridor. In 1747 and 1748, the Spanish took notice. Two entradas pushed through, one led by Pedro de Rábago y Therán, the other by Don Fermín de Vidaurre, both of them traversing that crossing looking for a location to plant a presidio.

They came, they looked, and they moved on — but the crossing stayed busy. Then comes one of the stranger details in this whole story. July 27, 1860.

Brevet 2nd Lieutenant Echols, following the Comanche Trail, stopped right here during the second experimental camel expedition. Camels. In West Texas.

Following the Comanche Trail through the Chihuahuan Desert. There are moments in Texas history that seem like someone made them up, and that is one of them. But there it is.

By 1899, a rancher named H.W. McGuirk had opened a trading post near the crossing, serving the growing Hispanic and Anglo population moving into the area. Within a year — by 1900 — the Lajitas crossing had become a substation port of entry, with uniformed and mounted inspectors watching the river.

A settlement took shape around all of this: businesses, a school, a church, and eventually, a cemetery. From 1911 to 1917, U.S. Troops manned the crossing, keeping an eye on a border that had never really been still.

The cemetery itself has been in use since at least the early 1900s. For about a century it has held Hispanic and Anglo residents and area workers side by side. One hundred and thirty-eight identified graves, most of them from the early to mid-twentieth century.

Walk through it and you'll see vernacular construction in all its forms — barrows, which are simple rock or sediment mounds, and grutas, those elevated monuments with openings or niches built to hold memorials. After 1950, the burials shift in character: engraved modern headstones, statues, cement slabs over the tombs. Different hands, different eras, same ground.

The Boquillas flagstone in those fence columns isn't just decorative. It's the same formation the very name Lajitas comes from. The land named the place, the place built its walls from the land, and somewhere inside those walls is most of what's left of a community that grew up around a river ford older than the town, older than the nation, older than anyone buried there.

That's Lajitas Cemetery — a reminder, as the marker puts it, of the varied culture and history of this corner of Brewster County. Out here, the stone remembers even when the names get hard to read.

What the marker says

Lajitas, the Spanish word for flagstone, comes from the Boquillas Geologic Formation. Located near the Lajitas Crossing/San Carlos ford on the Rio Grande, the Lajitas cemetery has been in use since at least the early 1900s. For millennia, the ford was used by natives of the region; the Comanche, Apache and other tribes used it during raids into northern New Spain/Mexico. In 1747-1748, two Spanish entradas, led by Pedro de R��bago y Ther��n and Don Ferm��n de Vidaurre, traversed the crossing looking for a location for a presidio. Following the Comanche Trail, Brevet 2nd lieutenant Echols stopped here on July 27, 1860, during the second experimental camel expedition. In 1899, rancher H.W. McGuirk opened a trading post near the crossing to serve the growing Hispanic and Anglo population. By 1900, the Lajitas crossing was a substation port of entry with uniformed and mounted inspectors. Ultimately, a small settlement emerged with businesses, a school, church and cemetery. From 1911-1917, U.S. Troops manned the crossing. For about a century, the Lajitas cemetery has been the resting place for Hispanic and Anglo residents and area workers. The cemetery is enclosed by columns of Boquillas flagstone connected by a wrought-iron fence. The 138 identified graves in the cemetery are primarily from the early to mid-20th century. Vernacular construction predominates in a variety of forms, including barrows (simple rock or sediment mounds) and grutas (elevated monuments with openings or niches for memorials). Used sporadically in recent times, the cemetery's post-1950 burials typically have engraved modern headstones and statues, often with cement slabs over the tombs. The Lajitas cemetery is a reminder of the varied culture and history of this area of Brewster County.