Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, straight from the record. Now, some stories start small and grow into something nobody quite expected. This one begins in Mercedes, Texas, in the year 1913.

The city put on its first Livestock Show in a building right there at Second Street and the Mercedes Canal. Nothing fancy about that address, but the purpose was serious: give farmers real information about livestock and agriculture. Knowledge, plain and simple, going out to the people who needed it most.

Now, a first chapter doesn't always lead straight to a second. The show came, it went, and for a good stretch of years, things were quiet. Then 1939 rolls around, and somebody decided it was time to bring it back.

The show was formally reinitiated. And if you're going to do something right in Texas, you put it on paper. So in 1949, the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show, Inc. was chartered as a non-profit educational corporation, complete with a board of directors.

That same year, forty-four acres were purchased at the north end of Texas Avenue to give the whole operation a home it could grow into. Forty-four acres. Room to breathe, room to build, room to dream a little bigger.

And grow it did. Today, the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show ranks in the top five largest livestock shows in the entire state of Texas. It is, by any measure, a vital stimulator for the local and regional economy.

But here's the thing the marker wants you to carry with you: at its heart, the show's primary focus is still educating youth and promoting agriculture. Same purpose as that first humble gathering back in 1913, just with a whole lot more acreage under its boots.

What the marker says

The City of Mercedes put on its first Livestock Show in 1913 in a building at Second St. and the Mercedes Canal. The purpose of the exhibition was to provide farmers with information about livestock and agriculture. The show was formally reinitiated in 1939 and chartered in 1949 as "the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show, Inc., "a non-profit educational corporation with a board of directors. In 1949, 44 acres were purchased for the site of the show at the north end of Texas Ave. Today, it ranks in the top five largest livestock shows in Texas and is a vital stimulator for the local and regional economy. Its primary focus is educating youth and promoting agriculture.