Cactus, Texas, Webb County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

There's not too much to report on this Cactus, which is about as far away as it can be from Texas' other town named Cactus up in Moore County.

This town began as a shipping point on the IG & N railroad in 1881. It had a post office in operation from 1884 until 1916 and although a school enrolled as many as 45 students in 1907, the overall population of the town proper never went over fifty after 1892. By the end of the 1940s there was only 25 people in Cactus and for the years 1968 through the early 1990s, there were no figures available.

A gas station / grocery was reportedly open in the 1980s and the local cemetery is shown on county maps.

1907 Webb County Texas postal map showing Cactus, N of Laredo
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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