Visitor & Relocation Information

Falcon Dam

Undeniably, the biggest economic change to Zapata County came in 1953 – 1954 with the construction of Falcon Dam and the creation of Falcon Reservoir. Falcon Dam had its origins in the signing of a treaty in Washington, D.C., on February 3, 1944, between the United States and Mexico that created the International Boundary and Water Commission to replace the old International Boundary Commission. Building on the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the agreement addressed the rights of the two countries to the waters of the Rio Grande. Moreover, it called for three major international storage dams on the Rio Grande jointly constructed by the two governments. Dams on the Rio Grande would not only provide relief from flooding, but would provide a reservoir for the vast agricultural fields of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

As a result of the 1944 treaty, a joint engineering conference was held in March 1946 in Mexico City, where the location of the dam was determined to be the small river settlement of Falcon. The decision to build the $47-million Falcon Dam erupted into a heated and often violent controversy in Zapata County. The debate fanned by newspaper articles and editorials in Laredo and as far away as San Antonio and Houston, centered on the way in which the Federal government acquired the land that would be flooded by Falcon Reservoir.

The land to be inundated included not only Zapata but the small communities of Ramireño, Uribeño, Lopeño, Clareño and Falcón. Real estate agents were contracted to act as appraiser’s o the land to be condemned while a geologist was hired to appraise mineral estate. All of Zapata County lying below an elevation of 325 feet, twenty-three feet about the maximum projected level of the reservoir, was to be condemned. Property owners were given one of three choices. They could sell their property and improvement to the government; they could sell the improvements to the government in exchange for land in the new town of Zapata; or, they could sell or exchange their property for property in the new town and sell improvements and repurchase them at the “off-site” value. Still, citizens were upset that they were given no alternative but relocation.

In San Ygnacio, citizens signed a petition asking that they not be forced to relocate. The project engineer agreed with villagers, and the community residents were allowed to keep their homes since the maximum level of the reservoir would not flood their small community. The historical significance of San Ygnacio was also mentioned as a reason for preservation.

On June 29, 1954 a devastating flood hastened the evacuation of Zapata and the small communities along the river since Falcon Reservoir began to fill much quicker than had been expected. As the citizens scurried to higher ground their homes, many of them centuries old, were smashed and dynamited behind them. Also of great loss was the community of Guererro, a cultural center and, architecturally one of the most distinctive of the river communities.

Source: A Wild and Vivid Land by Jerry Thompson

The construction of the Falcon Dam and Reservoir in 1954 nearly eradicated the architectural heritage of Zapata County. Hundreds of historic buildings, some dating to the 1700s, were lost forever when the city of Zapata and the smaller villages of Lopeño, Ramireño, Uribeño and Falcón were inundated by the reservoir. The structures built by the United States government to replace the homes and public buildings lost to the dam project were low-cost solutions built with no concern for continuity with cultural heritage of the region. The result was a new city of Zapata with little to offer residents in terms of a visible connection to the hometown they lost.

A Community planning effort is at work to reestablish the architectural identity of Zapata and is an important step in restoring a sense of place to the city and reconnecting citizens with their historical heritage.