DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Site of Santa Petronila Ranch, out in Nueces County. Now, before there was much of anything in what we call Nueces County today, there was a man with a long name and a longer mission. Captain Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon — born in 1712, gone by 1767 — got his orders in 1764, handed down by the governor of the Spanish colony of Nuevo Santander.
Those orders were no small thing: explore the coast, establish a mission for Christianizing the Indians, and plant a foothold in wild, uncharted country. So Falcon did what a man commissioned by a colonial governor does. He set up an outpost and way station, eight miles east of where this marker stands — the first of its kind in all of present-day Nueces County.
Let that settle in for a second. The first. By 1766, he wasn't just keeping an outpost.
He moved his family, his friends, and his herds of livestock to a place that came to be called Rancho de Don Blas — or Santa Petronila Ranch. And that ranch became something. It served as headquarters for expeditions, including those led by Falcon himself and his son, Alferez Don Joseph Antonio de la Garza, who pushed out and explored the islands strung along the Gulf Coast.
Now, the marker tells us Falcon probably named Santa Gertrudis Creek after his only daughter, Gertrudis de la Garza. There's something in that — a man carving names into new geography, leaving a daughter's name on the land itself. Colonists kept coming from the Rio Grande area, all the way up until 1836.
The ranch anchored that stretch of country. Soldiers at the garrison patrolled the region against the fierce Karankawa Indians and against foreign invasion. It was not peaceful country.
It was not easy country. And then came the Texas War for Independence in 1836, and with it — Indian raids bearing down — many of those colonists turned around and headed back to the Rio Grande settlements. You can't blame them.
The land was unforgiving and the times were dangerous. But here is the part that sticks with you: after the war, they came back. They reestablished their homes.
They dug in again. And according to the marker, many of their descendants still live in this area today. Some roots, once they take hold, don't let go — no matter what tries to pull them up.
What the marker says
Appointed in 1764 by the governor of the Spanish colony of Nuevo Santander, Captain Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon (1712-1767) established an outpost and way station (8 miles east), the first in present-day Nueces County. He was commissioned to explore the coast and establish a mission for Christianizing the Indians. By 1766 he had moved his family, friends and herds of livestock to what was called Rancho de Don Blas or Santa Petronila Ranch. Until 1836 many colonists came from the Rio Grande area. The ranch served as headquarters for expeditions including those led by Falcon and his son Alferez Don Joseph Antonio de la Garza who explored the islands along the Gulf Coast. Falcon probably named Santa Gertrudis Creek after his only daughter, Gertrudis de la Garza. He played an important role in settling towns along the Rio Grande and Nueces River and Padre, Mustang and St. Joseph's Islands. Soldiers at the garrison patrolled the region against the fierce Karankawa Indians and foreign invasion. Many colonists returned to the Rio Grande settlements because of Indian raids and the Texas War for Independence (1836). After the war they reestablished homes here. Many of their descendants still live in the area. (1978)