LeGrande Survey of 1833

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, and I'm taking it straight from the official record, this is the story of the LeGrande Survey of 1833. Now settle in, because this one reaches back to a time when Texas wasn't even Texas yet. When Mexico still held these plains.

When a man with enough ambition and the right partnerships could look out at the horizon and say, mine. All of it. John Beales was that kind of man.

Through partnerships, he acquired seventy million acres of land. Seventy million. And with that came a title that still echoes: Texas's largest land king.

That is not a small crown to wear. To make sense of those acres, though, somebody had to go out and actually walk the land. Draw the lines.

Put it on paper. That somebody was Alexander LeGrande. What LeGrande took on would give most men pause just to read about it.

His survey covered roughly two thousand miles. West Texas. The Oklahoma Panhandle.

Eastern New Mexico. Then south, all the way down to the thirty-second parallel. Two thousand miles, in 1833, under Mexico's rule, through country that did not forgive mistakes.

And hardship and tragedy plagued that survey. The marker doesn't elaborate, and maybe it doesn't need to. Plagued is a word that carries its own weight.

The survey was abandoned. Whatever LeGrande set out to finish, he did not finish it. Now, here's the part that stings just a little.

For a long time, the first exploration of this region was usually credited to Captain R. B. Marcy of the U.S.

Army. A fair enough name to know. But LeGrande's work came years earlier.

Years. Before the Army, before Marcy, before the flags changed, there was Alexander LeGrande, out in the west Texas wind, measurin' a world that the history books nearly forgot to mention.

What the marker says

Made in era of Mexico rule in Texas for John Beales, who through partnerships, acquired 70,000,000 acres of land and gained the title of "Texas" largest land king. Alexander LeGrande's survey covered about 2,000 miles in west Texas, Oklahoma Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico then south to the 32nd parallel. Hardship and tragedy plagued LeGrande's abandoned survey. First exploration here is usually credited to Capt. R. B. Marcy, U.S. Army; LeGrande's work was years earlier.