Mission's Name Runs from La Lomita to the Railroad

Mission's name begins with two narrow river tracts. Spanish porciones ran about two-thirds of a mile along the Rio Grande and stretched 11 to 16 miles inland. Porciones 55 and 57 held Rancho La Lomita and the chapel that gave the city its name.

In 1908, the Missouri Pacific Railroad opened a station near a new development four miles north of the mission. Ann Voltz suggested calling the town Mission, and the city was founded that same year.

The Rancho La Lomita Land Company also sold one of its first plots to William Jennings Bryan. He built a winter home in Mission.

The area also planted the Rio Grande Valley's first citrus. That crop grew into an industry celebrated by the annual Texas Citrus Fiesta. Mission's map holds the whole sequence close together: river land, a chapel, a railroad stop, and groves that became part of the city's public identity.