Monte Christo

Monte Christo (also Monte Cristo) was seventeen miles northwest of McAllen in west central Hidalgo County. It was founded in 1909 by the Melado Land Company of Houston and was managed by Marshall McIlhenny, who had a well drilled and land cleared for 640 experimental farms. A post office was opened at Monte Christo in 1910. A. A. Guerra and Emilio Vela operated stores in the community as early as 1911. The San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railway built a siding at Monte Christo in 1913, and that year the development company was successful in drawing settlers to the area. Around that time, the community of some thirty-six farm families included the railroad depot, a post office, a hotel, a wholesale and retail store, a lumberyard, a church, a feed store, a gas and oil station, and a newspaper (the Hustler, published by Virgil Lott). The well eventually failed and no new water source was found. By 1915 Monte Christo had an estimated population of seventy-five. The lack of water and the border raids of 1915–16 (see MEXICAN REVOLUTION) led residents to move away. The post office was closed in 1920. In 1926 the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway built a line from Raymondville to Monte Christo. The population of Monte Christo was estimated at twenty in 1943, when it had one store. In 1948 the site was only a railroad stop. The Missouri Pacific abandoned the line from Faysville to Monte Christo in 1957, and in 1969 it ceased service from Alton. Monte Christo had an estimated sixty residents in 1966, the last year for which population figures were available. In 1980 the site of Monte Christo was used as an identification point to locate several quarries.