DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now picture the South Texas brush country, right there on the Hidalgo-Willacy county line, where you might expect to find just about anything except a Swedish settlement. And yet.
That's exactly what you find when you start diggin into the story of Stockholm. The Wallin, Johnson and Matson Land Company — out of Minnesota, mind you — had themselves a pitch. Fertile farmland, inexpensive, and plenty of it.
And somewhere between 1912 and 1914, Swedish families started arriving, drawn by that promise of good ground. You have to wonder what it felt like, stepping off into the Rio Grande Valley having left Scandinavia behind, but the marker doesn't dwell on the wondering — it gets straight to the working. And work they did.
These settlers raised cotton, grain, and corn. Some ran dairy operations. They weren't just farming side by side, either — they organized.
They formed a farm club, a place to share information and share problems, because a hard season hits easier when your neighbor understands exactly what you're up against. The community that grew up here — also known as Turner Tract — had churches, a school, a grocery store, and a cotton gin. The whole apparatus of a town that intends to stay.
But Stockholm didn't stay. Not in the way its founders might have hoped. Today it's a ghost town, and near this site, the Stockholm Cemetery stands as one of the few physical reminders that any of this ever happened.
A patch of ground holding the names of people who came a long, long way to plant roots in South Texas soil. Some towns leave their mark on the map. Stockholm left its mark quieter than that — in the earth itself.
What the marker says
Located on the Hidalgo-Willacy county line, Stockholm was a Swedish community promoted by the Wallin, Johnson & Matson Land Co. of Minnesota. The Swedes, who settled here between 1912 and 1914, were attracted by the area's abundance of inexpensive, fertile farmland. They formed a farm club to share information and problems, and raised cotton, grain, and corn. Some were dairy farmers. Stockholm, also known as Turner Tract, had churches, a school, grocery store, and cotton gin. Near this site is the Stockholm Cemetery, one of the few physical reminders of the ghost town. (1985)