DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the Los Ebanos Ferry Crossing. Now, some places earn their history one chapter at a time. This one just kept accumulating it, era after era, like silt along a riverbank.
We're talking about a crossing on the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County that, by the best reckoning anyone has, is an ancient ford. Not old. Ancient.
The marker doesn't pin down just how far back the water was first broken here, only that the first recorded usage came in the 1740s, when Spanish explorers and colonists under Jose de Escandon came through and put it on the map, so to speak. Before that? Well, the river wasn't keeping records.
After that, though, everybody came through. There was a salt trail running from this very spot up forty miles to the northeast, all the way to El Sal del Rey. Think about that for a moment — forty miles of trail, and it started right here at the water's edge.
Then came the Mexican War troops in 1846, wading across on whatever business armies have at river crossings. Then in 1874 the Texas Rangers were using this same ford, this time chasing cattle rustlers, which tells you the rustlers knew about it too. And that brings us to the smugglers, because of course it does.
This crossing attracted smugglers across many eras, but it found its particular calling during the American Prohibition years, the nineteen-twenties and thirties, when certain entrepreneurial souls found the Rio Grande a very convenient business partner. Explorers, soldiers, Rangers, smugglers — everybody knew where the water ran shallow. It wasn't until 1950 that a ferry and inspection station were formally established here.
And what a ferry it turned out to be. Named for the ebony trees standing along this stretch of the river, Los Ebanos is known as the only government-licensed, hand-pulled ferry on any boundary of the United States. Not the Rio Grande.
Not the southern border. Any boundary of the entire country. So the next time you're inclined to think that history moves fast, come stand at Los Ebanos, watch somebody pull that ferry across by hand the way they've always done things here, and consider just how many sets of boots have crossed this same water since the seventeen-forties.
The river doesn't rush. Neither does this place.
What the marker says
Apparently this is an ancient ford. First recorded usage was by Spanish explorers and colonists under Jose de Escandon in 1740s on the Rio Grande. A salt trail led from here to El Sal del Rey (40 miles northeast). The ford was used by Mexican war troops, 1846; by Texas Rangers chasing cattle rustlers, 1874; by smugglers in many eras, especially during the American prohibition years, 1920s and '30s. The ferry and inspection station were established in 1950. Named for the ebony trees here, this is known as the only government-licensed, hand-pulled ferry on any boundary of the United States. (1974)