Visit the Treviño-Uribe Fort!

Visit this National Historic Landmark!

The Treviño-Uribe Fort is open every first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month from 11 A.M. - 5 P.M.

The Treviño-Uribe Rancho is described as both fort and dwelling and vividly represents the Hispanic ranching traditions that have dominated life along the Rio Grande for nearly two centuries.

In 1830, Jesús Treviño erected a one-room shelter on a Spanish land grant originally awarded by the King of Spain.

In 1848, following the Mexican War, Blás Maria Uribe, son-in-law of Jesús Treviño, moved the family from Guerrero Viejo (formerly Revilla) to Rancho San Ygnacio across the north bank of the river.

He developed the dwelling into a fortified compound by adding rooms, walls with gunports and a gate topped by a sundial. The fort provided refuge from raids by Native Americans who regarded the small community of ranchers as intruders upon their lands. Within twenty years, as life became more stable, Uribe laid out the San Ygnacio town site with the church and plaza that exist to this day.

In 1973, San Ygnacio was designated as a National Register District. In 1998, the Treviño Fort, a venerable cradle of ranching on the Rio Grande, was declared a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation for historic properties in the United States.

In 2010, the Fort was damaged with asphalt during a road improvement project, now known as the “Tar Incident,” but by 2011 funds for restoration became available through “Save America’s Treasures,” a program to preserve our nation’s most significant and endangered cultural and historic treasures.

Plan Your Visit today and view one of the oldest surviving buildings from the period of Spanish-Mexican settlement of the north bank of the lower Rio Grande.