The Railroad and Irrigation Transformed the County After 1904

Before 1904, the county was cattle country. The railroad brought outside buyers, and irrigation canals brought water to the dry flats. Land that sold for $0.25 an acre in 1903 was selling for $50 an acre by 1906 and up to $300 an acre by 1910.

By the 1920s, Edinburg had become a center for buying and processing cotton, grain, and citrus. This shift brought a wave of new settlers from across the United States and deepened the county's agricultural identity.