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Welcome Home WINTER TEXAN • • • February 3, 2021
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We’re just connecting the dots.
VOLUME 6 • ISSUE 16 • February 3, 2021 • • • your official connection to the rio grande valley • • •
hello FROM KRISTI
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id you know we have a mobile app? For those of you who are tech savvy and like to be on the go, I encourage you to give it a try! It’s free to download and available on the app store. We like our Winter Texans to have access to events and activities 24/7, especially while you’re on the go! While the events listed on our app might seem sparse these days, during a regular season you’ll find all the events and activities you see in our newspaper and on our website right there on our mobile app. But wait! It gets better! Once you find an event you’d like to attend, it will even tell you how to get there! We are always looking for new ways to communicate with you, so if you’re so inclined, download our app today; and we’d appreciate it if you’d share it with your friends, too. If you’re not a tech-savvy person, don’t despair. We’ll continue to keep you informed just like we’ve done for the last 13 years. • We’re just connecting the dots,
Kristi
THANK YOU TO OUR
2020-2021
SEASON SPONSORS
Majestic Giants of the RGV ~ Story and photos by Gretchen Losi ~
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ith her mammoth trunk twisted into the rich dry soil and her branches draped in Spanish moss steadily dancing in the wind, one can’t help but fall instantly in love. A few steps further into the grove and over a hundred feet in the air, you’ll spot another magnificent trunk with branches that seem to be frolicking with the clouds. There are only a handful to appreciate, but they are all that are left of the giant Montezuma Cypress
in North America--or anywhere north of Mexico--according to Eugene Fernandez, director of South Texas Center for Historical and Genealogical Research. And this last remaining grove is here in the Rio Grande Valley. Their home is on the now deserted Jagou plantation that’s tucked into the Southmost are of Brownsville, one of the city’s oldest residential MAJESTIC GIANTS OF THE RGV CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 >>
Eugene Fernandez has been working with several state and local agencies to save and preserve the rare Montezuma Cypress. Last year, those efforts earned the grove a much-needed drink when the city trucked in several hundred gallons of water to sustain the precious grove.