LOS OJUELOS

NAME: Los Ojuelos COUNTY: Webb ROADS: 2WD GRID: 5 CLIMATE: Warm winter, hot summer BEST TIME TO VISIT:Winter, spring, fall

COMMENTS: On a private ranch. REMAINS: A few buildings.

Water has and always will be one of the keys to human survival. Is it any wonder then the Indians who inhabited the semiarid land of what was to become Webb County resisted the attempts of the white man to settle the area? That is exactly what happened when an Eugenio Gutierrez, who had received a grant of land from the king of Spain in 1810, tried to settle there. The problem was the land grant included seep springs that came to the surface to supply water. Indians knew of the springs and had camped nearby for centuries. Gutierrez could not withstand the attacks by hostile Indians and withdrew. Forty-seven years later a descendent of Gutierrez was able to build a blockhouse around the springs and did establish a permanent settlement. By 1860 an estimated four hundred people occupied the land, creating a substantial ranch community. Los Ojuelos, which in Spanish means "the springs," prospered until the early 1900s when the population began to decline. Today, the town is nearly abandoned, serving only as a private ranch headquarters. SUBMITTED BY: Henry Chenoweth

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