Lajitas sits between Big Bend National and Big Bend Ranch State Parks and it is filled with quite a bit of history. For starters, the Jumanos people lived here after the Mammoth Eaters for many centuries. Later, the Apache took the land from the Jumanos before Spanish and later Anglo settlers came along. It’s very probable that Cabeza de Vaca crossed the Rio Grande at this spot around 1530. Later, the Espejo party definitely crossed here in 1588. I have talked about both of those Spanish expeditions and the Jumanos and Apache peoples in my history podcast!

Lajitas later became a post during the Mexican-American War and later in the early 1900s when violence broke out in Old Mexico. General Black Jack Pershing led troops from the area into Mexico during Poncho Villa’s reign of terror.

There’s an airport, a resort, a spa, a combat course gun range, and a golf course in the area today. As well as a Confederate Soldier Memorial at the old Cavalry Post. There are actually a few Confederate Statues that used to stand in various Texan Towns before pathetic progressives got rid of them. Thankfully the town has hosted them ever since.

The town overlooks the Rio Grande and Lajitas means little flat rocks in Spanish.