Encinal: Oak Grove on the Road to Laredo

The name Encinal is Spanish for oak grove, and railroad officials chose it when they pushed tracks through this corner of La Salle County in the early eighteen eighties. A small community called Ancaster had already existed near the site. When the International-Great Northern Railroad arrived, the settlement relocated to the tracks, as towns in South Texas commonly did.

A post office opened under the name Encinal in eighteen eighty-three, when there were probably no more than two or three frame buildings on the ground. The town developed as a shipping center for sheep and cattle from the surrounding ranches. A Catholic church went up in eighteen ninety-three, a Presbyterian church in nineteen oh eight. By nineteen thirty-three, Encinal had eight hundred residents and thirteen businesses. It sits today on Interstate Thirty-Five about twenty-seven miles south of Cotulla, a quiet stop between San Antonio and Laredo.