Zapata: The Town Beneath the Lake

There is a ghost town at the bottom of Falcon Lake. The original Zapata, along with the communities of Falcon, Lopeno, and Guerrero, was flooded in nineteen fifty-three when the United States and Mexico completed Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande.

Families whose ancestors had held Spanish land grants since the seventeen hundreds were told to pack up and move. The original Zapata County Courthouse, the town plaza, historic ranch chapels, and cemeteries all disappeared under the reservoir. Residents sued the government, and court hearings ran from nineteen fifty-four to nineteen sixty-two before additional payments were ordered. When the lake level drops dramatically during dry years, the ruins of old Zapata emerge from the water, and locals drive out to walk streets their grandparents knew.