Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1899 — TEXAS TOWN WASHED AWAY. [ARTICLE]

TEXAS TOWN WASHED AWAY.

RioGrande River Higher than Known for Forty Years. The Rio Grande is on the greatest rampage known for forty years. The old town of Carrizo, the county seat of Zapata County, Texas, was washed away hy the flood of that river, not a vestige of the settlement, which had a population of about 1,200 Mexicans, remaining. The court house and a part of the new town is threatened with destruction, and all the county records were removed. Unconfirmed reports of a number of deaths by drowning have reached Austin from points below Carrizo. The wide valley on the Mexican side of the river below Rio Grande City has been completely devastated, several thousand acres of irrigated crops being destroyed. The present big flood has caused the river to change its course at several points, transferring thousands of acres of Mexican territory to the United States. At one point on the river, bordering on Hidalgo County, the river is cutting off a large tract of United States territory, and promises to land it in Mexico. Near Benevidos the river, when on a rise a few years ago, transferred a part of a Mexican ranch stocked with several thousand sheep, to the Texas side of the stream. The United States officials made an effort to collect a duty on the sheep, but the ranch owner successfully resisted payment of the same.