Los Corralitos

In the late 1960s and 70s, great care had been taken in selecting a building to recognize the early days of ranching endeavors in Texas and the Southwest for the National Ranching Heritage Center. San Jose de Los Corralitos from Zapata County was chosen because evidence suggests it may be the earliest standing structure in the state of Texas. Los Corralitos was fashioned as a fortified ranch building, or Fortaleza, to protect the family from Indians and marauders.

Don Jose Fernando Vidaurri, grandson of the original Borrego grant owner, built the single-room dwelling of sandstone, mud mortar, mesquite and Montezuma cypress. It had 33-inch walls; one door on the east elevation; no windows; six gun ports; and a flat, 11-foot ceiling.

Ranching was an important way of life for the Spanish settlers, many of whom saw it as their heritage. Driving cattle into what is now the American Southwest began in 1598 when 7,000 head were pushed north from Durango, Mexico, as part of Juan de Onate’s colonization of New Mexico. Records show that settlements on the Rio Grande from 1659-1682 established the first ranchos in what is now Texas.

Los Corralitos represents that story. The “Little Corrals” dates from 1753, when Colonel Jose Escandon dedicated a 350,000-acre Borrego grant, a portion of which would eventually become the village of Corralitos. The fortress was part of an effort to hold title to the Borrego family grant.

The Ranch Headquarters Planning Committee investigated moving Los Corralitos to the NRHC; however, court records indicate that the original structure may hold beneath its floor the bodies of at least five members of the land grant family. This was done to prevent grave robbers and Native Americans from digging up the graves of loved ones.