Santa Ana Land Grant

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Way out in Hidalgo County, there's a piece of ground that has been a lot of things to a lot of people, and the story stretches back nearly two centuries. It starts in 1834, when Mexico awarded a fifteen-square-mile land grant to a man named Benigno Leal.

Fifteen square miles. That is a serious piece of country. Leal knew what he had, and he put down roots right here.

He established his headquarters and his cemetery at this very site, and he gave it a name that tells you something about how he thought of the place: Rancho de Adentro. The Inside Ranch. Now that name carries a certain quiet confidence, doesn't it.

This is the ranch that's tucked in, settled, at home. Leal's original grant eventually got combined with adjacent lands, and what emerged from that combining was something called the Alamo Tract. And here's where the story shifts.

Between 1910 and 1930, the Louisiana and Rio Grande Canal Company converted the Alamo Tract to farmland. All that wild South Texas country, shaped into fields and rows. Most of it, anyway.

Because the southern section of the tract held onto something. It retained its natural riverine forest environment, that tangled, living corridor of trees along the river that no canal company could quite tame. And in 1943, the U.S. government acquired that southern section and created the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

So what Benigno Leal staked his ranch on in 1834 is, in its southernmost reach, still wild. The Inside Ranch, it turns out, kept something inside after all.

What the marker says

The 15-square-mile Santa Ana land grant was awarded by Mexico to Benigno Leal in 1834. Leal established his Rancho de Adentro (Inside Ranch) headquarters and cemetery at this site. Leal's original grant was eventually combined with adjacent lands to form the "Alamo Tract" which between 1910 and 1930 was converted to farmland by the Louisiana and Rio Grande Canal Company. The tract's southern section nevertheless retained its natural riverine forest environment and was acquired by the U.S. government in 1943 to create the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. (1993)