Candelaria, Texas

The town stands in the Chihuahuan Desert on the north bank of the Rio Grande, just across from the small Mexican town of San Antonio Del Bravo.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/05/25/726128023/in-rural-west-texas-illegal-border-crossings-are-routine-for-u-s-citizens|title=In Rural West Texas, Illegal Border Crossings Are Routine For U.S. Citizens|last=MATALON|first=LORNE|date=May 25, 2019|website=NPR News|language=en|access-date=2019-05-25}} The two towns were linked by a bridge across the river that enabled the inhabitants of San Antonio to buy groceries and supplies from Candelaria; some sent their children to school there. However, in 2008 the bridge was controversially removed by the U.S. Border Patrol because of concerns that it had become, in the words of Border Patrol chief John Smietana, "a route for terrorists, drug traffickers and illegals."{{cite news|last=McSwain|first=Ross|title=OUT YONDER: Rio Grande foot bridge now a memory|work=San Antonio Standard-Times|date=2008-07-06}} As of 2019, local United States citizens would still cross illegally due to lack of local service creating some informal reciprocal helps with local Border Patrol agents.

It is unclear when Candelaria was founded, but the area was occupied by Native Americans before farmers began to grow crops on the irrigated floodplain of the Rio Grande. It was known initially as Gallina ("chicken" in Spanish) before being renamed as Candelaria. In 1868, an entrepreneur named William Russell came to the area to establish a farm worked by the local people, selling the grain to the US Army at Fort Davis and Fort Stockton. Cotton was also grown locally. With the town's population increasing steadily, it became the seat of one of Presidio County's three school districts in 1893. By 1911 it had grown to two stores, a church and a school, with 307 pupils in the school district and a general population of 1,842, though only a minority of these actually lived in the town.{{cite book|last=Baker|first=T. Lindsay|title=More Ghost Towns of Texas|year=2005|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3724-7}}

The remoteness of the area led to concerns about its security during the Mexican Revolution. The US Army responded in 1916 by establishing an army post, Camp Candelaria, that was garrisoned until late 1919. The town's fortunes waned thereafter; with its poor transport links along a 50-mile dirt road to Presidio, its small-scale agriculture could not compete with the industrial farms elsewhere along the Rio Grande. The population fell steadily, from 250 in 1925 to 75 by 1940. By the late 1980s the town had shrunk to a two-room elementary school, a store, a Catholic church, and a cluster of adobe houses.

Candelaria gained its first paved access as late as 1985 when Farm to Market Road 170 to Presidio was surfaced."[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hnc06 Candelaria, Texas]." Handbook of Texas Online. (accessed April 30, 2010).

{{Weather box

|location=Candelaria, Texas (Jun 1, 1940–Jul 22, 2011)

|single line=Y

|collapsed = Yes

|Jan record high F=86

|Feb record high F=92

|Mar record high F=99

|Apr record high F=105

|May record high F=110

|Jun record high F=115

|Jul record high F=114

|Aug record high F=111

|Sep record high F=109

|Oct record high F=103

|Nov record high F=93

|Dec record high F=86

|year record high F=115

|Jan high F=66.6

|Feb high F=72.4

|Mar high F=80.7

|Apr high F=89.3

|May high F=96.6

|Jun high F=101.9

|Jul high F=100.0

|Aug high F=97.7

|Sep high F=92.9

|Oct high F=85.6

|Nov high F=74.6

|Dec high F=66.8

|year high F=85.4

|Jan mean F=49.0

|Feb mean F=53.8

|Mar mean F=60.7

|Apr mean F=68.7

|May mean F=76.6

|Jun mean F=83.6

|Jul mean F=84.1

|Aug mean F=82.0

|Sep mean F=77.2

|Oct mean F=67.7

|Nov mean F=56.3

|Dec mean F=49.2

|year mean F=67.4

|Jan low F=31.5

|Feb low F=35.2

|Mar low F=40.6

|Apr low F=48.2

|May low F=56.5

|Jun low F=65.3

|Jul low F=68.2

|Aug low F=66.4

|Sep low F=61.5

|Oct low F=49.9

|Nov low F=38.1

|Dec low F=31.6

|year low F=49.4

|Jan record low F=9

|Feb record low F=9

|Mar record low F=14

|Apr record low F=21

|May record low F=34

|Jun record low F=46

|Jul record low F=56

|Aug record low F=47

|Sep record low F=33

|Oct record low F=22

|Nov record low F=15

|Dec record low F=6

|year record low F=6

|precipitation colour=green

|Jan precipitation inch=0.44

|Feb precipitation inch=0.36

|Mar precipitation inch=0.27

|Apr precipitation inch=0.36

|May precipitation inch=0.65

|Jun precipitation inch=1.48

|Jul precipitation inch=2.17

|Aug precipitation inch=2.26

|Sep precipitation inch=1.99

|Oct precipitation inch=1.19

|Nov precipitation inch=0.39

|Dec precipitation inch=0.45

|year precipitation inch=11.99

|snow colour=green

|Jan snow inch=0.0

|Feb snow inch=0.1

|Mar snow inch=0.0

|Apr snow inch=0.0

|May snow inch=0.0

|Jun snow inch=0.0

|Jul snow inch=0.0

|Aug snow inch=0.0

|Sep snow inch=0.0

|Oct snow inch=0.0

|Nov snow inch=0.0

|Dec snow inch=0.0

|year snow inch=0.1

|unit precipitation days=0.01 in

|precip days colour=green

|Jan precipitation days=3

|Feb precipitation days=2

|Mar precipitation days=2

|Apr precipitation days=1

|May precipitation days=3

|Jun precipitation days=5

|Jul precipitation days=7

|Aug precipitation days=8

|Sep precipitation days=6

|Oct precipitation days=3

|Nov precipitation days=2

|Dec precipitation days=2

|year precipitation days=43

|source 1 = Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute{{Cite web|publisher=Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute|title=CANDELARIA, TEXAS (411416), Period of Record Monthly Climate Summary |url=http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?tx1416|access-date=Mar 26, 2016}}

|date=Mar 2016

}}

Candelaria is zoned to schools in the Presidio Independent School District.

Was referenced in the movie The Highwaymen (2019).

{{portal|Texas}}

• List of unincorporated communities in Texas

{{reflist|22em}}

• {{cite web |title=Candelaria, TX |last=Justice |first=Glenn |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hnc06 |website=TSHA Handbook of Texas Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association}}

{{Presidio County, Texas}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Unincorporated communities in Presidio County, Texas

Category:Unincorporated communities in Texas

Category:Ghost towns in West Texas