There is an unexpected story to the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse.
They built it right on the Rio Grande in 1909 to pump water into the irrigation system for this giant flat agricultural valley. (Giant steam engines.) Everything was fine until 1933 when a hurricane pushed this far inland and the Rio Grande flooded. When the river water receded, the new path of the Rio Grande was half a mile away, leaving the pumphouse high and dry. They had to dig a canal from the rerouted river back to the pumphouse so they could continue to feed irrigation water to the valley.
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