From Pioneer Paths to Superhighways - The Texas Highway Department Blazes Texas Trails 1917-1968
Nat Wetzel to the Texas Highway Commission, March 25, 1931
Page 1 of 2
March 25, 1931
Honorable Highway Commission
W. R. Ely, Chairman
Austin, Texas.
Gentlemen:
Giving you further information as to the importance of
the designation of Highway 96 across Kenedy County, I
beg to remind you that the people of this section at this
time are obliged to make the following long trip, if de-
sirous of getting out of the Valley, and when bad weather,
hinders the passing of dirt ranch roads.
Auto traffic on State Highway must go from Raymondville
to Harlingen, thence to Pharr, then to Edinburg and Fal-
furrias, and from Falfurrias to Riviera, making a distance
from Raymondville to Riviera of 153 miles. If Highway 96
was built, the distance from Raymondville to Riviera would
be 46.5 miles. At Riviera we would connect with No. 16.
By having the Kenedy County route, traffic would save 107
miles one way. If, on the other hand, good weather would
permit the dirt roads to be used through ranches from Ray-
mondville to what is known as the Red Gate on Highway 12,
that distance would be 22 miles. Willacy County has hard
surface, but Hidalgo County does not, and in wet weather
it is entirely out of the question to go via the short cut.
Willacy County now has a complete road to the South Kenedy
County line.
The entire population of the Rio Grande Valley, as well as
many of our sister republic on the south, say nothing of all
those desirous of coming south from the entire United States,
would be benefited by this tremendous saving, though they
would be coming to any part of the Valley.
Nat Wetzel to the Texas Highway Department, March 25, 1931. Kenedy County, Texas Highway Department Records, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.