Crystal City Economic Development

Crystal City, the county seat of Zavala County, is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 83, Farm roads 393, 16, 1433, 65, and 582, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad, one mile north of the Dimmit county line in south central Zavala County. Two land developers, Carl F. Groos and E. J. Buckingham, developed the town in the early 1900s. In 1905 they pur... chased the 10,000-acre Cross S Ranch, sold off most of the land as farms, and platted the townsite of Crystal City, named for the clear artesian water of the area. The town received a post office in 1908, the same year the Crystal City and Uvalde Railway provided the first rail service to the community and the first school building was erected. Crystal City was incorporated in 1910, when it had an estimated 530 inhabitants, and by 1914 the community had a bank, three general stores, and the weekly Chronicle. In 1928 the county voted to make Crystal City the county seat, and that same year the community added a city manager to its mayor-council government. As soon as the railroad reached Crystal City, the community became a major shipping point for winter vegetables. At first onions were the major crop, but by the 1930s the city developed a reputation as the "Spinach Capital of the World. In 1936 the first annual spinach festival was held, and the following year a statue of the cartoon character Popeye, that mighty consumer of spinach, was erected across from the city hall. Carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables were also marketed, and a vegetable cannery was opened in 1932. Under the stimulus of agricultural growth the population rose from an estimated 800 in 1920 to 6,609 in 1930, then fell slightly to 6,529 in 1940. The majority of residents in the 1930s were Mexican or Mexican-American migrant laborers who followed a seasonal cycle of spinach in the winter, onions in the spring, and beet or cotton work in the summer and fall. A government report of 1941 estimated that 97 percent of the 5,500 Mexican Americans living in Crystal City at that time were ...Read More