The Hidalgo Pumphouse Museum

The Hidalgo Pumphouse Museum features displays that portray, to quote from a McAllen ISD web page, “the important and beneficial effects of the pumphouse towards the irrigation of agriculture in the lower Rio Grande Valley.” We saw tools once used on the machinery and “huge engines that had once sent more than 300,000 gallons of water per minute to an area reaching 70,000 acres around the cities of Hidalgo, McAllen, Edinburg, Pharr, and San Juan.”

A wing of the World Birding Center is also here. Depending on the season, one may see tropical kingfishers, green jays, clay-colored robins, Altamira orioles, warblers, kinglets, and gnatcatchers, and other species.

There is a superb view of the Rio Grande, and we took the opportunity for a group picture on a deck overlooking the river. You may see this and other photos (partial group pictures overlooking the wooden railing, the imposing Pumphouse smokestack, and a section of the border fence) if you click on “McAllen Slide Show” in the fall 2009 Medium.

Submitted by Craig Bunch