La Paloma, Texas, Cameron County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

A storekeeper named Manuel Saldona is credited with naming the town after the doves that nested in the native huisache trees. A post office was opened in 1912 but closed in the late 1950s. The San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railway arrived in 1912 and built a station. The railroad extended to San Pedro (formerly called Santander) in 1928.

From a 1915 population of just twenty-five people (20 in 1925), La Paloma swelled to 150 by 1940. The population remained at 150 until the early 1970s when it declined to 110 in 1973. A colonia formed around part of La Paloma in the 1970s and population estimates went as high as 726 in 1976. By 1984 it had declined to 450 and 354 in 2000. The population rose to 2,903 in 2010.

Today it's part of the Brownsville�Harlingen Metropolitan Statistical Area

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