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Mission

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Mission, known as the “home of the grapefruit,” is in southwestern Hidalgo County. For nearly 250 years the descendants of the original Spanish settlers in this area have ranched the huge porciones – oblong blocks of land nine-thirteenths of a mile wide at the Rio Grande and extending up to sixteen miles north.

The settlement of La Lomita began in the area with a small chapel built by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Land surrounding the chapel was deeded to Oblate fathers Pierre Yves Keralum and Pierre Fourrier Parisot. The town was first located at La Lomita chapel and was built about 1865 on the farm that later became the mission.

The city of Mission was founded in 1907, when John J. Conway and J. W. Holt purchased the 17,000-acre La Lomita Ranch from the Oblate fathers, along with 10,000 acres from John Closner and James B. Wells, and began to sell tracts to settlers arriving in the area.

John H. Shary founded Sharyland and the Rio Grande Valley citrus industry. John J. Conway purchased the land that would become Sharyland from the Catholic Church before selling much of it to John Shary. Conway played an instrumental role in developing an irrigation system for local farms, and much of unincorporated Sharyland actually lies within Mission’s city limits.

The area’s growth is largely a result of the economic changes spawned by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010611/fnafta.html.  The region is also becoming popular as a bedroom community for white collar workers and professionals working in McAllen and Mission.

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