THE HIDALGO PUMP HOUSE

By MOSTHistory staff

Did you know that, more than a hundred years ago, if you needed water on the borderlands, you either got it directly from the Rio Grande or from a hand-dug well known as a noria?

After John Closner won the gold medal for his sugar cane at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, investors learned South Texas had rich soil, a temperate climate, and a supply of fresh water from the Rio Grande. The future money-making industry would be agriculture, and the region would be branded as the Magic Valley.

In 1909, a cooperative of farmers and businessmen funded, constructed, and opened the Hidalgo Pump House. This technological advance had twin state-of-the-art steam engines that could pump 144,000 gallons per minute.

Steam boilers were fueled by surplus mesquite wood from land-clearing parties. Starting the boiler would take a crew the whole day and was originally only done a few times a year to fill canals and holding ponds.

Once the mesquite ran out, the boilers were powered by crude oil and, eventually natural gas in 1920. The Hidalgo Pumphouse operated until 1983, and in 1999, was opened as the Old Hidalgo Pump House Museum and World Birding Center.

This was just one of many agricultural innovations in the history of South Texas.