Falfurrias, Texas

Falfurrias is a city in and the county seat of Brooks County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,981 at the 2010 census. The town is named for founder Edward Cunningham Lasater's ranch, La Mota de Falfurrias. In 1893, the Falfurrias ranch was one of the largest in Texas at some 350,000 acres (1,400 km²).

Geography

Falfurrias is located in northeastern Brooks County at 27°13′36″N 98°8′42″W / 27.22667°N 98.14500°W / 27.22667; -98.14500 (27.226529, -98.144922). The city is centered around the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 (Future Interstate 69C) and State Highway 285. Falfurrias is approximately 78 miles (126 km) southwest of Corpus Christi, 90 miles (140 km) east of Laredo, and 36 miles (58 km) south of Alice.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.4 km²), all land.

History

Falfurrias' founding and development were largely due to the efforts of Edward Cunningham Lasater, a pioneer Rio Grande Valley rancher and developer. In 1895, he started a cattle ranch in what was then northern Starr County. At one point, it was one of the largest ranches in Texas. With the extension of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway south from Alice to his ranch in 1904, Lasater founded the town of Falfurrias and subdivided a sizable portion of his ranch land for sale to other farmers. In 1898, a post office opened in the community. A local newspaper began publication in 1906. Lasater brought in his Jersey cows and established a creamery in 1909. Sweet cream butter and other products from Edward Lasater's creamery company made the town a familiar name across the state. But that butter is no longer made from milk produced in Falfurrias. Don Pedro Jaramillo, a Mexican-born curandero known as "The Healer of Los Olmos", was buried in Falfurrias in 1907 and is venerated at a shrine there.