The origins of Weslaco read much like the beginnings of the Rio Grande Valley’s narrative of the early 20th century. 

It includes railroads, canals, irrigation and agriculture, with U.S. troops at the border to chase and capture Pancho Villa should he cross the river. The latter did not happen. There are no indications Villa and his riders ever ventured close to the South Texas border with Mexico.

About 12,000 troops came anyway to station just east of present-day Weslaco in a now vanished settlement called Llano Grande. Even though Villa was a no show, the troops made good of their time here. Their training, as it turned out, prepared them for duty in World War I in 1917.

It was about the time of Weslaco’s founding. After the troops left, land speculators and newcomers came scouting the area. The Weslaco Museum tells this story and more on Texas Boulevard. The faces look back at visitors, the ones of young soldiers and farm workers, along with the boxes or oranges and onions. There are also palm-lined pictures of a downtown Weslaco of eras gone by. 

Photo after photo are on display at the downtown Weslaco Museum. It’s a beautiful story in many ways, but not all history will follow a storybook narrative, as Sheila Shidler, the museum’s executive director will tell visitors.

“Not all history is pretty, but it makes us who we are today,” Shidler said. 

In Weslaco’s case, she was referring to the years of segregation in Weslaco’s early history. The railroad tracks bordering present-day Business 83 served at the dividing line between Hispanic and Anglo communities in the city. One can say the same of many other Valley communities during that era. 

“These stories are what has driven us to where we are today,” Shidler said. “This is where we come from.”

Agriculture Is The Engine

The downtown museum on Texas is a gem.

It’s a pleasant walk-around in following the procession of history in Weslaco. The origins of this community, like many in the Valley outside of Brownsville and Rio Grande City, trace back to the railroad’s arrival. The branch line of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached what would become the Mid-Valley in the early 1900s.

For Weslaco, the year was 1919 when the branch reached the area. The city would emerge from the south side of the rail extension. Land companies founded by Midwesterners set up operations here, including one named the W.E. Stewart Land Company. The town’s name is a clever acronym of the company’s name. The early focus of Weslaco, like the rest of the Valley, was agriculture. 

“Agriculture was the machine,” Shidler said. “The city was founded on agriculture.”

That fact is borne out in museum photos depicting work in packing sheds, citrus fields and in a juice plant that was perhaps the crown jewel of the agricultural industry in the Mid-Valley. The Texsun Corporation was formed out of 17 Valley citrus associations that united to start a plant in Weslaco for boxing, juicing and canning RGV oranges and grapefruits.

For decades, Texsun products were shipped to U.S. markets and those around the world, including U.S. troops serving in Europe during World War II. Weslaco orange juice was so popular with American soldiers that the military asked the Texsun cans be painted khaki. The reflections off the silver ones were tipping off enemy troops. Some of those old khaki-colored cans are on display at the Weslaco Museum.

The reach of Texsun is in a museum display showing photos of can labels in French, German and English. 

“Texsun was a huge presence in Weslaco,” Shidler said of the company, which operated from the early 1930s until 1991. Its best years ran through the 1970s before ownership became more corporate and based out of the area. The end of Texsun was a big economic blow to Weslaco, but there would be a replacement, at least for another era, by a new entry into the community.

“When it closed, that’s when Haggar and Dickie’s came in,” Shidler said of Texsun. “It saved the economy.”

Community Comes Together

The textile plans are long gone today along with the juice plant that for decades stood just east of the present-day South Texas College/Mid-Valley campus. 

Weslaco is growing anew these days. There are new trends and developments, the buzz of growth along Expressway 83 and new warehouses and shipping operations in the city’s industrial park north of town. The essence of the community remains in its original town site on Texas Boulevard, with the faces and work of those pictured at the city’s museum serving as a testament of the people who built Weslaco.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Shidler, who runs a museum funded by donations and a monthly city stipend. “We’ve learned to pray together and play together as a city.”

The Weslaco Museum is located at 500 S. Texas Blvd, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.