Zapata County Research Articles

The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846–1876 ed. by Roseann Bacha-Garza, Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek

Reviewed by: The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846–1876 ed. by Roseann Bacha-Garza, Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek Richard B. McCaslin The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846–1876. Edited by Roseann Bacha-Garza, Christopher L. Miller, and Russell K. Skowronek. The Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and Southwest. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2019. Pp. xxii, 326. $45.00, ISBN 978-1-62349-719-4.) The Civil War affected all parts of the United States, but much that occurred far from the major battlefields has slipped from public memory. Faculty at universities, curators of local museums, and community members in southern [End Page 183] Texas have been working to reverse that inattention, developing a Civil War trail that stretches through five counties on the lower Rio Grande (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, and Webb Counties) and Kenedy County immediately to the north. The results include a website with a virtual trail, signs for the actual sites, a Facebook page, classroom materials, and a previous book that tells the story of the project (Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek, and Roseann Bacha-Garza, Blue and Gray on the Border: The Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail [College Station, Tex., 2018]), which describes the trail and discusses African American soldiers. Russell K. Skowronek writes the concluding essay in the book under review. His summary adds little except his useful explanation that the work reflects a “‘cubist’ approach” to “the American Civil War era along the Rio Grande” (p. 292). Cubist he defines, from David Hurst Thomas, as “a combination of oral and documentary history, ethnographic analogy,” and archaeology (p. 271). Together, these approaches should provide a better understanding of the conflict and its impact. In truth, this goal has been only partially achieved. Oral history concerning the Civil War has obvious limitations, but all history is only as good as the written corroboration of different sources. The authors of these essays use some great sources, especially Mary Margaret McAllen, who relies on the archives of the McAllen Ranch. But those familiar with Texas in the Civil War era will find a substantial number of important secondary works missing from the bibliography and endnotes, which contain sources not listed in the bibliography. Standard histories of Texas and the trans-Mississippi theater are absent, as well as studies on such topics as blockade-runners and Reconstruction politics. Biographies of important characters who are mentioned repeatedly—Edmund J. Davis, John S. Ford, José María de Jesús Carbajal, Philip Sheridan, Porfirio Diaz, and Benito Juárez, for example—are not cited. This oversight leads to mistakes, such as misidentifying the regiment of Union cavalry that Davis led, declaring that Davis was governor of Texas in 1875, giving the wrong rank for Ford in 1864, and misstating Texas cotton production. Concerning ethnography, several authors, most notably McAllen and Jerry Thompson, provide good insights on the relations between Tejanos and Anglos. But it is on the topic of African Americans that the work becomes too narrowly focused. Roseann Bacha-Garza has an intriguing essay on three mixed-race families, and W. Stephen McBride and James N. Leiker have interesting essays on African American soldiers during the first years of Reconstruction. Apparently, few of the soldiers stayed in the Rio Grande Valley after their enlistment, yet there were other African Americans who were just as vital in shaping the area. While the figures are misquoted several times in this volume, there were fourteen slaves in Cameron, Hidalgo, and Starr Counties in 1860, and the first two counties also had the largest populations of free black people in Texas at that time. Their stories, as well as those of the slaves, would enrich the ethnographic history of the Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail. This analysis would be much more useful than repeating uncorroborated stories about the Underground Railroad in Texas and how Ford and Santos Benavides worked as slave hunters. Rolando Garza has worked long and hard on military archaeology in the Rio Grande Valley, but the Palmito Ranch battlefield has yielded little. Only forty of the more than three thousand acres of the site have been...

The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846–1876 ed. by Roseann Bacha-Garza, Christopher L. Miller, and Russell K. Skowronek

Reviewed by: The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846–1876 ed. by Roseann Bacha-Garza, Christopher L. Miller, and Russell K. Skowronek Robert Wooster The Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846–1876. Edited by Roseann Bacha-Garza, Christopher L. Miller, and Russell K. Skowronek. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2019. Pp. 326. Photographs, notes, index.) In 2014, the Contributors Committee of the Community Historical Archeology Projects with Schools agreed to endorse the creation of the Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail, incorporating sites in Cameron, Hidalgo, Kleberg, Starr, Webb, and Zapata Counties. Combining written descriptions, a website, audio tours, podcasts (in Spanish and English), road signs, a short film, and a tour guide called Blue and Gray on the Rio Grande: The Rio Grande Civil War Trail (Texas A&M University Press, 2018), the project aims to publicize key Civil War sites and museums, promote cultural awareness, and increase heritage tourism. In so doing, it serves as a model for regional public history ventures. Featuring eleven essays by academic and public historians, museum and National Park Service officials, archeologists, and anthropologists, The Civil War on the Rio Grande, as explained on the dust jacket, provides "the scholarly backbone to [the] larger public history project." Several key themes emerge. First, modern residents of the lower Rio Grande Valley are justifiably proud of the region's importance in the Civil War and rightly determined to see that a broader audience recognizes their story. Second, the region's volatile politics—factional disputes between Reds (generally pro-Confederate) and Blues (generally pro-Union); conflicts between regional caudillos; imperial rivalries between the United States, France, and Mexico; and struggles for Mexican supremacy between Imperialists and Republicans—produced complex outcomes unique to the Valley. Third, the Civil War provided temporary economic opportunities, adroitly exploited by largely European and Anglo entrepreneurs but of little benefit to average laborers. Fourth, soldiers and the force of arms eventually determined the fate of the Rio Grande Valley. Finally, racial, ethnic, and national identity remained crucial throughout the Civil War era. Anyone who has had experience in any aspect of producing a book of essays understands the inherent problems involved. The present book thus seems something less than the sum of its individual parts. The book's somewhat quirky organization leads to considerable redundancies. Three essays, for instance, devote attention to the Union blockade, all of which could have benefitted from Robert M. Browning's Lincoln's Trident: The West Gulf Blockading Squadron During the Civil War (University of Alabama Press, 2015). Further, by including separate chapters on mercantile interests, the regional economy, and general overviews, on at least three occasions (77, 115, and 165), readers are reminded of a single contemporary newspaper's estimate that 320,000 bales of cotton had been exported [End Page 366] through Bagdad, Mexico, during the war years. Distinct essays on African American soldiers from Kentucky and the more general black military experience result in the same quotation from Sgt. Maj. Thomas Boswell, 116th United States Colored Infantry, appearing twice (204, 256). Finally, this reader could divine no apparent links between themes suggested in the opening essay regarding frontiers, borderlands, and borders, and the closing essay's championing of a "cubist" or a "conjunctive approach" (271) to history. Several essays are, however, quite valuable, most notably those by Mary Margaret McAllen on the era's key business life; Roseann Bacha-Garza on the complicated racial and ethnic relations of the region's mixed communities; Irving W. Levinson on the tangled diplomacy between Mexico and the United States; Jerry Thompson's discussion of Col. José los Santos Benavides and Gen. Juan Nepomuceno Cortina; and W. Stephen McBride's work on the Kentucky United States Colored Troops along the border. Featuring excellent research in the appropriate public, manuscript, and government primary documents, all can be read with profit by generalists and specialists alike, and the entire effort clearly demonstrates that Civil War South Texas offers opportunities for study far beyond the Battle of Palmito Ranch. Robert Wooster Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Copyright © 2020 The Texas State Historical Association

Development of a Spatially Targeted Field Sampling Technique for the Southern Cattle Tick,Rhipicephalus microplus, by Mapping Whitetailed Deer,Odocoileus virginianus, Habitat in South Texas

The objective of our study was to determine whether satellite remote sensed data could be used to identify white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmerman) (Artiodactyla: Cervidae), habitat and target locations for sampling free-living larvae of the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini) (Ixodida: Ixodidae) in South Texas. Two methods for mapping white-tailed deer habitat were used, an object-oriented method to identify closed canopies and waterways for deer movement and two vegetation indices: the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and the Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index to identify forage for deer. These two data sets of favorable white-tailed deer habitat were combined within a geographic information system to identify locations for sampling ticks. Larvae of R. (B.) microplus, were sampled in Zapata County, Texas, by walking transects with attached flannel panels to jeans. Although the data set and sampling period were limited, data analysis demonstrated that sampling of free-living larvae of R. (B.) microplus can be conducted in South Texas, and larvae were most abundant in areas that harbored O. virginianus. Spatial analysis of satellite imagery to classify white-tailed deer/southern cattle tick habitat proved efficacious and may be useful in directing sampling activities in the field.

Molecular characterization of Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) spp. infecting cattle (Bos taurus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) in the United States

In the United States, the generally non-pathogenic trypanosome of cattle is designated Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) theileri and is distinguished morphologically from Trypanosoma (M.) cervi, a trypanosome originally described in mule deer and elk. Phylogenetic studies of the Megatrypanum trypanosomes using various molecular markers reveal two lineages, designated TthI and TthII, with several genotypes within each. However, to date there is very limited genetic data for T. theileri, and none for the Megatrypanum trypanosomes found in wild ungulates, in the U.S. In this study U.S. isolates from cattle (Bos taurus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (WTD), and elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) were compared by ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence analysis and their incidence in cattle and WTD in south Texas counties was investigated. Phylogenetic analyses showed clear separation of the bovine and cervine trypanosomes. Both lineages I and II were represented in the U.S. cattle and WTD parasites. Lineage I cattle isolates were of a previously described genotype, whereas WTD and elk isolates were of two new genotypes distinct from the cattle trypanosomes. The cattle isolate of lineage II was of a previously reported genotype and was divergent from the WTD isolate, which was of a new genotype. In La Salle, Starr, Webb, and Zapata counties in south Texas a total of 51.8% of white-tailed deer were positive for trypanosomes by 18S rDNA PCR. Of the cattle screened in Webb County, 35.4% were positive. Drought conditions prevailing in south Texas when the animals were screened suggest the possibility of a vector for Trypanosoma other than the ked (Lipoptena mazamae) and tabanid flies (Tabanus spp. and Haematopota spp.).

Notice of release of Zapata Germplasm Rio Grande clammyweed: selected class of natural germplasm

A selected germplasm of Rio Grande clammyweed (<i>Polanisia dodecandra</i> (L.) DC. ssp. <i>riograndensis</i> Iltis [Capparaceae]) has been released for rangeland restoration and wildlife habitat enhancement plantings in south Texas. Zapata Germplasm Rio Grande clammyweed is a warm-season annual forb originating from seed collected from native plants in Dimmitt and Zapata counties of south Texas. Collections were selected based on high proportion of full seed, low levels of seed dormancy, and high seed production potential. Zapata Germplasm is a fast-establishing native plant in rangeland plantings, provides excellent habitat to butterflies and other pollinators, and produces seed eaten by a variety of game birds. This release will provide a competitive annual forb useful for providing quick cover in rangeland plantings and will contribute to quality habitat for many wildlife species and pollinators. Zapata germplasm represents the first release of this species.

The Fighting Padre of Zapata: Father Edward Bastien and the Falcon Dam Project (review)

2oo8 Book Reviews223 which "equal protection" was used to exclude Mexican-American jurors (Pp. 96-97). However, these limitations do not significantly detract from the compelling manner in which Beatriz de la Garza subtly reconstructs a past injustice while at the same time relating it to die broader historical context. A Lawfor the Lion is an instructive and engaging tale of South Texas history. Texas AafM UniversityCarlos Kevin Blanton The Fighting Padre of Zapata: Father Edward Bastien and the Falcon Dam Project. Edited by Maria F. Rollin. Southwestern Studies, no. 10. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 2003. Pp. xxxii+265. Foreword, preface, acknowledgments, note on editorial method, maps, illustrations, epilogue, appendices, notes, bibliography . ISBN 0-87404-285-2. $18.00, paper.) Maria F. Rollin's The Fighting Padre ofZapata makes an important contribution to the historiography of South Texas; it adds to the growing documentary collection of the area's history, and it is an easy read. Rollin salvaged an old manuscript prepared by Father Edward Bastien, who led the fight to assure that American residents displaced by the Falcon Dam project were justly compensated. The dislocated Mexican residents, on the other hand, were well taken care of by their own government. Father Bastien, a French Canadian, came to Zapata in 1946 at about the same time that the United States and Mexico began to develop the Falcon Dam, which was designed to help residents of the Lower Rio Grande Valley get water when they needed it. The dam would hold water from damaging floods and release it during times of drought. Everyone, including Bastien and his parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, supported the project and its aims. What they disagreed with, and fought against for over a decade, were the methods used by the United States government to pay for homes, businesses, and land inundated by the new lake formed by the dam. Father Bastien clashed with government bureaucrats from the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) over full replacement value of the properties, the right to buy back homes at "salvage value," and the requirement to clear the titles to lands that were being condemned. Father Bastien put together a formidable team to fight the IBWC, which he derisively said stood for "I beat widows and children." Locally, the Padre got help from the Zapata Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion. He even formed an uneasy alliance with George Parr's Partido Viejo, which dominated Zapata's county government. Nationally he enlisted the help of Democrats and Republicans alike, including U.S. Senators Lyndon B. Johnson and Price Daniel, Congressmen Lloyd Bentsen and Joe Kilgore, Governor Allan Shivers, and Republican National Committee memberJack Porter. Other important members of the Bastien team were newspapers such as the Laredo Times, Corpus Christi Caller, San Antonio Express, and Houston Chronicle. Bastien wrote hundreds of letters advancing the cause and as a result of his 224Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober efforts, hundreds of columns of newspaper print were dedicated to the issue. He compiled many of these letters and articles into a manuscript he hoped would someday be published. He called his work "The Case of Zapata: The Case of the Missing Policy Maker" and signed it with his pseudonym, I. ???, alias the Sad Zap. I ??? stood for "irate people of Zapata" and Sad Zap for "Self-Appointed Defender of Zapata." Rollin does a goodjob of editing Father Bastien's work and adds to it by publishing many important letters not in the original manuscript; these she retrieved from the Lyndon B.Johnson Library and the Sam Houston Regional Library. All in all, this book would be a good addition to collections of South Texas history. Pflugerville, TexasAlfredo E. Cardenas Golden Boy: The Harold Simmons Story. By John J. Nance. (Austin: Eakin Press, 2003. Pp.vi+322. Photographs. ISBN 1-57168-747-5. $24.95, cloth.) Deciphering the system in which one operates can make risk seem less daunting and its rewards more satisfying. Golden Boy: The Harold Simmons Story is a review of a life's work spent in educated risk taking. John Nance weaves one individual 's story ofwealth creation into a readable overview of the world of...

Behavioral Responses of Pepsis thisbe (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) to Chemosensory Cues Associated with Host Spiders

In this study we investigated the ability of females of the spider wasp, Pepsis thisbe, to detect and respond to chemosensory cues associated with two species of theraphosid hosts (Aphonopelma moderatum and A. texense), as well as a novel chemical cue associated with a stored grain beetle (Tribolium confusum), a species not likely to be encountered by these wasps. Field-collected adult wasps were subjected to choice experiments where they were exposed to a piece of filter paper conditioned with one of these treatment cues versus one sprayed with water (control). One half of the floor of a test chamber contained the treatment cue, while the other contained the control paper. For each trial, the amount of time spent on each paper was recorded. Wasps spent significantly more time on paper conditioned with chemical cues associated with A. moderatum than they did on paper conditioned with cues from A. texense or T. confusum. In addition, field data collected at the study site in southern Texas (Zapata County), showed that over 91.2% of all P. thisbe larvae were found attached to A. moderatum as compared to only 8% for A. texense, despite the fact that the abundance and size of these two theraphosids were similar. Eighty-one percent of all paralyzed A. moderatum found with wasp larvae attached to their bodies were females.

Zapata: River, Community and People in Transition

Texas' Zapata County borders Mexico for some hundred miles along the Rio Grande River. For more than two centuries descendants of the original Spanish settlers of the area have tilled the soil in this rural Latino community. Their history is the history of the river, its dry spells, and fl oods, bounties, and ultimately its dams. The following narrative is an ethnographic account of the transformation of Zapata from a farming and ranching community to a recreation and retirement community as a result of a treaty and the building of a dam and the social, cultural and economic transformation these set into play.Propelled by an international treaty between the United States and Mexico (Treaty between United States and Mexico 1944), construction of the first international dam between the United States and Mexico, Falcon Dam and Reservoir on the Rio Grande River, served as the catalyst that forever changed the river, the people and the community. The new reservoir's waters inundated homes, townsites, farms and...

Development of a spatially targeted field sampling technique for the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, by mapping white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, habitat in South Texas.

The objective of our study was to determine whether satellite remote sensed data could be used to identify white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmerman) (Artiodactyla: Cervidae), habitat and target locations for sampling free-living larvae of the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini) (Ixodida: Ixodidae) in South Texas. Two methods for mapping white-tailed deer habitat were used, an object-oriented method to identify closed canopies and waterways for deer movement and two vegetation indices: the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and the Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index to identify forage for deer. These two data sets of favorable white-tailed deer habitat were combined within a geographic information system to identify locations for sampling ticks. Larvae of R. (B.) microplus , were sampled in Zapata County, Texas, by walking transects with attached flannel panels to jeans. Although the data set and sampling period were limited, data analysis demonstrated that sampling of free-living larvae of R. (B.) microplus can be conducted in South Texas, and larvae were most abundant in areas that harbored O. virginianus . Spatial analysis of satellite imagery to classify white-tailed deer/southern cattle tick habitat proved efficacious and may be useful in directing sampling activities in the field.

Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County

Journal Article Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County Get access Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County. By Quezada J. Gilberto. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999. xviii + 291 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95.) Mary L. Kelley Mary L. Kelley University of Texas at San Antonio Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 32, Issue 4, Winter 2001, Pages 522–523, https://doi.org/10.2307/3650825 Published: 01 November 2001

Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County.

On January 1, 1937, Manuel B. Bravo was sworn in as county judge of Zapata County, a post he would hold for twenty years. In Border Boss: Manuel B. Bravo and Zapata County, J. Gilberto Quezada delineates Bravo's political career in the Democratic Party and examines his role in some of the important issues of his day, especially Falcon Dam. During Bravo's years in office, he worked and corresponded with many Texas and national politicians, including James Allred, Lloyd Bentsen, Kika de la Garza, Ralph Yarborough, and, most prominently, Lyndon Johnson. The association between Bravo and Johnson began with the special Senate election of 1941 and is reflected in the more than fifty letters between the two in Bravo's personal papers. In Johnson's 1948 Senate runoff against Coke Stevenson, voting irregularities were alleged in Zapata County when the election returns from Precinct No. 3 were reported missing. Quezada analyzes the Bravo papers for any evidence that Bravo and Johnson had arranged the disappearance and offers possible alternative explanations. From the 1930s to the 1950s Zapata County was one of six South Texas counties where the Tejano majority dominated local politics and held most public offices. Bravo became known as one of the Mexican bosses of South Texas, but Quezada draws a more nuanced picture of bossism than has been presented previously, analyzing the role of influential leading families but looking as well at the degree of economic integration into the state and nation as factors in how bossism developed. Those interested in Mexican-American studies and politics and bossism in South Texas will appreciate the window onto South Texas politics and Tejano culture this biography gives.

Refiguring “the American Congo: Jovita González, John Gregory Bourke, and the Battle over Ethno-Historical Representations of the Texas Mexican Border

R e f ig u r in g “t h e A m e r ic a n C o n g o ”: J o v it a G o n z á l e z , J o h n G r e g o r y B o u r k e , a n d t h e B a t t l e o v e r E t h n o - H is t o r ic a l R e p r e s e n t a t io n s o f t h e T e x a s M e x ic a n B o r d e r M a r ía E u g e n i a C o t e r a In the summer of 1925, Lilia Casis, the venerable professor of Spanish at the University of Texas in Austin, introduced one of her students, Jovita González, to J. Frank Dobie, a professor of English who, at the time, was a nationally recognized authority on Texas folk­ lore. This introduction was a turning point in Jovita González’s life. “Heretofore,” she writes, “the legends and stories of the border were interesting, so I thought, just to me. However, he made me see their importance and encouraged me to write them, which I did, publish­ ing some in the Folk-Lore Publications and Southwest Review’’ (“Early Life” xii). This meeting also had far-reaching implications for the ways in which the dialogue over Texas history would be played out over the rest of the century. Today, as a result of recovery projects which have brought González’s representations of the Mexican “folk” of Texas under new scrutiny, scholars have begun to explore her com­ plex relationship with folklore as an institution.1 While these discoveries have shed new light on this important Mexican American intellectual, the recovery of González’s “lost” texts has not exactly heralded a triumphant réintroduction into the canon of Chicana/o intellectual production. And in spite of the fact that González has always been viewed as a foundational figure within the field, she still occupies a somewhat marginal position in historical accounts of the development of the counterdiscursive practice of Chicana/o studies. As José Limón notes, González “has been anthol­ ogized only twice, in brief excerpts and rather early on in the Chicano movement years” (Limón, “Folklore” n.p.). Her relative invisibility in the arena of Chicana/o studies is due in no small part to the fact that her published work has traditionally been viewed as too deeply influ­ enced by the questionable romantic idealizations of the Mexican “folk” evident in the writing of her mentor J. Frank Dobie. In truth, González’s folkloric representations of the Mexican American people 7 6 WAL 3 5 .1 S p r in g 2 0 0 0 and their culture do not employ the obviously resistant narrative strategies of the man who followed in her footsteps at the University of Texas, the putative founding “father” of Chicano studies, Américo Paredes. Nonetheless, close analysis of both the recovered texts and her earliest extended attempt to represent the “social life” of her community, namely, her master’s thesis titled “Social Life in Cameron, Starr, and Zapata Counties” (1930), reveals a much more complex and resistant Jovita González than the accommodating scholar we have come to know through her published articles. Although she is best known as an expert in Texas folklore, Jovita González received her M.A. in history at the University of Texas and submitted her thesis for approval to Texas historian Eugene C. Barker. According to González, Barker “was somewhat hesitant at first to approve the thesis,” but he relented after her friend Carlos Castañeda insisted that the thesis would “‘be used in years to come as source material’” (qtd. in González, “Early Life” xiii). Castañeda’s prediction was correct, for historians such as David Montejano and Amoldo De Leon have used González’s master’s thesis as a major source of infor­ mation on early...

Abstract: 3D Petroleum System Modeling: A new tool in an old exploration area - Webb and Zapata County, South Texas, USA

Abstract: 3D Petroleum System Modeling: A new tool in an old exploration area - Webb and Zapata County, South Texas, USA

Abstract: Upper Wilcox Depositional Sequences and Orientation of Related Growth Fault Systems, Zapata County, Texas&amp;nbsp;

Abstract: Upper Wilcox Depositional Sequences and Orientation of Related Growth Fault Systems, Zapata County, Texas&amp;nbsp;

Abstract: Loma Vieja Field: Structural Geology and Related Velocity Fault Shadow in the Upper Wilcox (Fandango) in South Texas

ABSTRACT A new Upper Wilcox (Fandango) field discovery was made at Loma Vieja field in 1989 in Zapata County, Texas. Production from the field to date is 44.1 Bcf from numerous Fandango sands that trend from Bob West field northward to E. Seven Sisters field. The principal trapping mechanism for Loma Vieja field is a high side closure against a very large down-to-the-coast fault. This fault trends across Zapata County through Escobas field, which is immediately updip to Fandango field, northward to NE Thompsonville field in northwest Jim Hogg and southeast Webb Counties. The large down-to-the-coast fault that creates the trap for the field has a definitive velocity shadow resulting in a major time sag on conventional migrated seismic data. The expansion of Weches, Queen City, and Reklaw shales on the downthrown side of the fault causes major changes in the average and interval velocities across the trapping fault at Loma Vieja field. Seismic data and time structure maps over the field show southeast dip toward the fault where actual dip as measured from well log correlations and dipmeter data reveals northwest dip away from the fault. While the field was discovered on 2-D seismic data, 3-D seismic data have confirmed the presence of a velocity gradient across the field and have reduced structural risk during continued drilling in the field.

Abstract: The 3D Seismic Rejuvenation of Roleta Field, Zapata County, Texas

ABSTRACT Post 3-D wells drilled by Union Pacific Resources on its Roleta Field acreage have more than quintupled gas production volumes from 9 MMCFD to 52 MMCFD, which is more than triple the field's pre-3-D production rate of about 15 MMCFD. Production at Roleta occurs mainly in Middle to Upper Wilcox geopressured tight gas sands at depths from 7,000 ft to 10,000 ft. The western portion of the acreage is submerged beneath Falcon and had minimal pre-3-D production. The acquisition of twenty square miles of land and lake 3-D resulted in the identification of 33 drill sites. The economics of tight gas sand drilling on partially submerged lands as at Roleta are enhanced by the technological synergism of 3-D combined with directional drilling, modern fracstimulation, cost-efficient completions, and commingling of productive zones. As a result of these efforts the EUR for this property has doubled from a pre-3-D figure of 62 BCF to a post-3-D value of 124 BCF. End_of_Record - Last_Page 567-------

Abstract: Lopeno Field: Results of a 3-D Seismic Shoot Zapata County, Texas

Abstract: Lopeno Field: Results of a 3-D Seismic Shoot Zapata County, Texas

Bob West and Lopeno Fields: Structure and Stratigraphy of Two Significant Upper Wilcox Gas Fields in South Texas: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Bob West field (Starr and Zapata Counties, Texas) and field (Zapata County, Texas) are both large Upper Wilcox fields in South Texas. Located six miles apart and producing from the same Lopeno sand sequence, Bob West field may ultimately produce up to 1 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) and field 200 Bcf (billion cubic feet). Although the principal trapping mechanism for both fields is high side closure against down-to-the-coast faults, there are significant structural differences. Bob West field which produces primarily from one west dipping fault block, also has downthrown production on east dip. The field is bounded by large depositional growth faults to the west and east. field is highly faulted and produces from closures against lower aged faults. The field is transected by a very large growth fault system. This fault traps some, but not all of the pay sands at field. Both fields exhibit post-depositional rotation. Bob West field has been rotated basinward to the east, while field was rotated to the southeast. The greater structural complexity of field may explain why it is the smaller of the two fields. Bob West field produces from 29 sands and field from 18. Based on regional mapping these sands are interpreted to be shallow water strike oriented deposits with excellent sand correlations extending 40 miles on strike. Bob West field which was discovered in 1990, being 38 years after field, implies that the Upper Wilcox Trend of South Texas has yet to be fully explored.

Cultural Resources Survey and Monitoring of Joint Task Force Six (JTF-6) Actions in Webb, Zapata, Dimmit, La Salle, Duvall, and Jim Hogg Counties, Texas

Joint Task Force Six (JTF-6) Operation AT-93 involved multiple actions in six south Texas counties. These actions included the repair and construction of approximately 240 km (150 mi) of existing firebreaks, the repair/upgrade of approximately 9.5 km (5.9 mi) of road along the Rio Grande River near Laredo, the upgrade of two small-arms firing ranges, and the construction of a fitness/obstacle course. Extensive previous disturbance was noted within the impact areas of the firebreaks and at the two firing ranges; no cultural resource sites were located in these areas. Along the Rio Grande, the survey identified the site of Star Fort (part of historic Fort McIntosh), which was crossed by the road improvement project. The proposed fitness/obstacle course is located within an old industrial area, which has been previously determined to lack significant cultural resources. The sites of Star Fort and the San Ygnacio Historic District were recognized as National Register properties that needed to be avoided. Avoidance of these properties was successful except for the grading of an existing road adjacent to the remains of Star Fort that had been marked for avoidance. Fortunately, this action resulted in no damage to the historic property. In summary, Operation AT-93 resulted in no impacts to the cultural resources of the region.

Distribution and Habitat of the Parthenogenetic Whiptail Lizard, Cnemidophorus laredoensis (Sauria: Teiidae)

The parthenogenetic whiptail lizard Cnemidophorus laredoensis, an apparent cloned hybrid species, had been reported from only two localities in southern Laredo, Webb Co., Texas, and none in Mexico when this study was initiated in 1983. This report lists totals of 25 (23 new) localities in Dimmit, LaSalle, Webb, Zapata, Starr and Hidalgo counties, Texas, and 11 in Tamaulipas State, Mexico. Cnemidophorus laredoensis was found in syntopy with its apparent maternal progenitor C. gularis at 19 localities in Texas and six in Tamaulipas. Unlike many parthenogenetic species of Cnemidophorus which extend the range of the genus into geographic areas and habitats not inhabited by gonochoristic species, the range of C. laredoensis is entirely contained within the much more extensive range of C. gularis. Although most locality records for C. laredoensis are located within a narrow riverine zone of ca. 10 km in width and 250 road km in length on both sides of the Rio Grande between Nuevo LaredoLaredo and Nuevo Progreso-Progreso Lakes, the species also occurs well away from the Rio Grande in parts of Dimmit, LaSalle and Starr counties. The habitats of C. laredoensis vary from slightly altered to radically disturbed sites with sandy to loamy soil which support short or tall grass-weed, weed-mesquite, bunchgrass-mesquite and/or ecotonal thorn shrub assemblages. The Laredo whiptail is frequently found in habitats which have been subjected to catastrophic alteration, long-term degradation or significant changes leading to the virtual absence of C. gularis at some sites. Cnemidophorus laredoensis is less likely to be excluded from extensively altered habitats than C. gularis, since each individual of the former is capable of producing eggs which develop parthenogenetically. INTRODUCTION The Laredo whiptail lizard Cnemidophorus laredoensis possesses a number of biological attributes which make it a most unusual and compelling subject for research. It is an all-female parthenogenetic species, one of less than 2 dozen such forms among all of the vertebrates, which was apparently generated through an instance of hybridization between the gonochoristic species C. gularis and C. sexlineatus. Cnemidophorus laredoensis is also remarkable in its restricted latitudinal range, syntopic to closely parapatric relationship to one of its parental species, C. gularis, throughout its range and geographical distribution which is well E of all other parthenogenetic species of Cnemidophorus. At the initiation of this study in 1983, parthenogenetic whiptail lizards (genus Cnemidophorus) had been reported from only two localities in Texas and none in Mexico in the vast expanse of the Rio Grande Valley between the mouth of the Pecos River and the Gulf of Mexico. The first specimens of Cnemidophorus laredoensis were collected in 1970 at Chacon Creek Arroyo, Laredo, Webb Co., and at the time of collection were thought to represent the gonochoristic species Cnemidophorus gularis which is widely distributed in Webb Co. (McKinney et al., 1973). That an undescribed all-female population occurred at Chacon Arroyo was first indicated by the unusual number of females in the 1970 sample and the high frequency of heterozygosity at some gene loci as determined by electrophoresis (McKinney et al., 1973). The subsequent description of C. laredoensis was based upon two series of specimens collected only 1.6 km apart in the suburban clutter of southern Laredo and included no information on the habitat of the species or its relationship to C. gularis and C. sexlineatus. Aside from subsequent papers by Bickham et al. (1976) establishing that C. laredoensis is allodiploid (2n = 46) with one genome from each of its gonochoristic progenitors and Wright et al. (1983), identifying