As a cultural center, Corpus Christi frequently assumes a Parisian air when writers and artists convene in this sunny city. The CORPUS CHRISTI JUNIOR MUSEUM is fun for children. Here for the children is a colorful collection of Indian relics and Padre Island shells. There are also many other fine museums.

Only an hour’s drive from Corpus Christi is the ARANSAS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE at Austwell, which offers sights of the nation’s wildlife in its own habitat; birds and game abound. Even the whooping crane sleeps here during the months from November to April.

ROCKPORT and FULTON BEACH, in the Corpus Christi area, are famous resort cities, aristocratically adorned with lovely wind-bent oak trees. In nearby GOOSE ISLAND STATE PARK is a MARINE LABORATORY and AQUARIUM.

The Annual Tarpon Rodeo has made nearby PORT ARANSAS famous, and visitors have been introduced to its fine restaurants, noted for their seafood.

Leaving Corpus Christi, Highway 77 cuts through Kingsville, headquarters of the fabulous KING RANCH of nearly a million acres, where roam eighty-five thousand head of cattle. The acquisition of this huge acreage was begun in 1853 by Richard King, one of the early steamboat captains who navigated the Rio Grande. Here was developed the only breed of cattle originated in the Western Hemisphere—the King Ranch Santa Gertrudis breed. Inside the fifteen hundred miles of fencing are some three hundred windmills. The ranch is famous, also, for breeding thoroughbred horses, two of which, Assault and Middleground, have been Kentucky Derby winners. The Texas College of Arts and Industries, one of Texas’ finest, is in Kingsville, too.

Settlement of the lush Rio Grande Valley was first undertaken in the late eighteenth century, when the Count of Sierra Gorda, Escondon, brought settlers into this then semi-desert region of the Rio Grande delta. These were the first Europeans to attempt permanent settlement in the region. In 1767 Spain confirmed their endeavors.

From then until well into the nineteenth century, the Valley was left pretty much alone. It was the spreading empires of the cattle barons that brought the next burst of activity. In 1872 the Rio Grande Railroad, a rambling, narrow-gauge line, was completed from Port Isabel to Brownsville, and promptly put most of the river steamboats out of business, although steamers were used to take goods to Mier as late as 1886.

The coming of the main railroad from the North—the International and Great Northern—really opened the Valley up to its present prosperity. This was in 1904, and ever since the Valley has been prospering. Port Isabel became a deep water port in 1930; Brownsville followed. Harlingen was made a port with the lengthening of the Intracoastal Canal in 1951.

Poised at the entrance to the Lower Rio Grande Valley is RAYMONDVILLE, and the nearby LA SAL VIEJA, a great salt lake, which for the most of two centuries provided salt for South Texas and northern Mexico. From Raymondville it is only a twenty minute drive to the Gulf of Mexico at PORT MANSFIELD.

Next are HARLINGEN and SAN BENITO, two palm-studded cities, situated side by side, frilled with tropical plants and fruits. Plush motels, lavish restaurants, reminiscent of Las Vegas with dazzling neon finery, dramatize the wide, sparkling, clean streets. The warm winter season is entertaining with its fiestas and cultural festivities. In San Benito a beautiful wide resaca (Spanish for old river bed) is one of the largest and most picturesque left by the Rio Grande in its meandering around. Besides being the home of the Valley cotton industry, tremendous canning plants are located in this area. Every February the Municipal Golf Course is the scene of the nationally famous “Life Begins at Forty” invitational tournament.

Once this beautiful valley setting was a tangle of thorny mesquite and cactus, but irrigation has turned it into a productive tropical resortland. The slogan of the Valley is “land of fruit, flowers and funshine.” Amid nature’s lavish display of grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines and tangelos, solemnly sit weathered old missions. Art here often takes the form of the weird figurine shapes of cactus huddling near the ground or jutting against the sky.

About two-thirds of the people in the Lower Rio Grande Valley are of Latin-American descent. As a result, the Valley is bilingual. Even stop signs read “stop” and “alto.” Noted for their friendliness, the populace of the Valley (at this writing) is numbered around a half million.

At the scene of the first shots fired in the Mexican War sits BROWNSVILLE, largest city in the Valley, named after Fort Brown, a military establishment that was earlier named Fort Taylor. Here are battle sites marking places where General Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexicans during his victorious march through the Valley. Just outside the city is Palmetto, a site that has the distinction of being the actual last battleground of the Civil War, when three hundred Confederates stationed at Fort Brown defeated seventeen hundred Federalists who tried to capture the cotton stored in Brownsville warehouses. This was six weeks after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox; due to poor communications of the time news of the surrender had not reached Texas. Now Fort Brown serves as Texas Southmost College. The old buildings and breastworks of the fort still remain.

A gentler history of Brownsville can be experienced in the STILLMAN HOUSE, built by the city’s founder over a hundred years ago and now carefully restored. In the patio of the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce sits a little locomotive, relic of the RIO GRANDE RAILROAD, first in South Texas. The CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION has survived here since 1850. Nearby, also, is the convent INCARNATE WORD, where the first nuns came in 1860. A state marker identifies the site. Brownsville’s high-brows leisurely nested in the OLD VIVIER OPERA HOUSE, scene of culture and recreation until 1916.

In Brownsville, the old-world charm of the Spaniards, the exotic traditions of the Indians, the youth and industry of the Americans are blended and mingled into a unique and colorful culture. Under Spanish architecture one hears soft Castilian spoken. The strong influence of ancient Mexican-Indian cultures survives in the rich-hued dresses of the local women, colorful comic wear, quaint customs, and many spicy border dishes. Exquisite inns with modern facades nestle in lush vegetation. The PORT OF BROWNSVILLE, western terminus of the Intracoastal Canal, serves as an outlet to world markets for the South Texas and northern Mexico area.

A short distance from Brownsville is SANTA MARIA, recalling the days of its importance when river boats were the principal means of transportation along the Rio Grande. Now it is interesting because of the lovely little church built in 1880 by the Oblate Fathers.

Close to LOS FRESNOS, a farming community, is BAYVIEW, where live industrialists, writers, artists, and retired executives. Luxurious estates dot a twenty-two mile stretch of a beautiful resaca. The Los Fresnos Charity Horse Show, with its international flavor, is held in mid-June.

Over the golden Queen Isabella Causeway, across from Padre Beach on Padre Island, reigns PORT ISABEL, explored by Spaniards in the early sixteenth century. Before 1800 it was settled as a fishing resort community. Its old lighthouse, built in 1852, has been preserved as a state park in the center of the city—probably the smallest state park in Texas. This historic structure was built to guide ships coming in from the Gulf of Mexico through Brazos Santiago Pass. Port Isabel still serves as a port for ships from the seven seas. Ocean going vessels constantly ply through Brazos Santiago Pass. Succulent shrimp is the commercial life of Port Isabel, which is often referred to as the “Shrimp Capital Of The World.” Around the clock the shrimpers unload their valuable cargo. The city is also home of the Texas International Fishing Tournament held in August. At one time Port Isabel was designed to become a modern Venice, with channels dredged through it which may still be seen.

Turning left from Brownsville, one winds through the Lower Rio Grande Valley, where groves of Texas’ famed delicacy, pink grapefruit, and hugely clustered oranges and lemons provide tempting and fragrant scenes along the highway. Also, in this tropical valley, and with little coaxing, papayas, bananas, avocados, cantaloupes, mangos, and strawberries flourish. In many of the citrus groves signs invite tourists to pick fruit at bargain prices, such as a dollar per bushel, while the rest of the nation is still trying to ward off the assaults of winter.

Here is a seventy-mile stretch of palm-lined Highway 83, framed in tropical splendor, which runs from Brownsville at the east end of the Valley to its west end, through an almost unbroken chain of cities, including La Feria, Mercedes, Weslaco, Donna, Alamo, San Juan, Pharr, McAllen, and Mission. The first stop down this main street is LA FERIA, a pleasant residential community. Then on to MERCEDES, home of the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and World Championship Rodeo. It, also, is a friendly city endowed with an abundance of flowers, where Sunrise Hill Memorial Bowl holds, for the whole Valley, sunrise Easter services in its amphitheatre. Next to Mercedes is WESLACO, central point of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and a city of modern urban charm. DONNA is the home of the South Texas Sheep and Land Exposition held during the winter months. A townsite which has been moved away from the Rio Grande after the disastrous flood of 1909, it is a city of many new civic buildings. Like a pendant in the string of Valley pearls, presides ALAMO (meaning cottonwood tree in Spanish), a city of bougainvillaea, poinsettias, and lush tropical greenery.

Just across the street is SAN JUAN, site of the beautiful NUESTRA SENORA DE SAN JUAN church, completed in 1954. Its exquisite altar was a gift from Spain.

“’Tain’t far to Pharr from anywhar,” is the inadequate slogan for PHARR, home of the Valley Vegetable Show, held each December. Many fruit and vegetable processing plants are here. Eleven miles southeast is the SANTA ANA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, with two inland lakes maintained for waterfowl and wildlife. Some of the two hundred eighty-eight species which have been sighted in it are considered quite rare. It is a veritable tropical jungle, with ebony trees said to be the largest in the United States.

Next comes McALLEN, “City of Palms,” favorite of the tourists, and the oil and gas center of the Valley. The city is built on one of the richest natural gas deposits in Texas. Only eight miles from the border, McAllen is often called one of the gateways to Old Mexico.

MISSION, named after LOMITA MISSION, is the setting for the Texas Citrus Fiesta, a celebration glorifying the citrus industry of the state. Lomita Mission is a small chapel built in 1849. Three miles west of Mission is BENTSEN STATE PARK, which gives one an idea of how the Valley looked a half century ago—before dense brush growth gave way to irrigated farms. For many years William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued orator, was a nearby resident. The BRYAN HOME is two miles north of Mission.

Westward, from Mission to Rio Grande City, is a Hollywood western setting, with shrines dotting the hilltops. At the entrance to the town is Fort Ringold, famed military establishment which served as a station for Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Zachary Taylor, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and John Pershing. Built as a cavalry post in 1847, today Fort Ringold is the campus of the Rio Grande City High School. Near Rio Grande City stands OUR LADY OF LOURDES, a replica of the world famous shrine as it exists in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France.