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Presidio is a city in Presidio County, Texas, United States. It stands on the Rio Grande (''Río Bravo del Norte''), on the opposite side of the U.S.-Mexico border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The population was 4,167 at the 2000 census, and had increased to 5,106 as of the 2010 US census.〔Texas Almanac US Census information, http://www.texasalmanac.com/texas-towns/presidio. Retrieved 2011-12-14.〕 Presidio is on the Farm to Market Road 170, and U.S. Route 67, south of Shafter in Presidio County. Presidio is about 250 miles southeast of El Paso, 240 miles southwest of Odessa, and 145 miles northeast of Chihuahua, Mexico. ==History== The junction of the Rio Conchos and Rio Grande at Presidio was settled thousands of years ago by hunting and gathering peoples. By 1200 AD, the local Native Americans had adopted agriculture and lived in small, closely knit settlements, which the Spaniards later called ''pueblos''.〔Riley, Carroll L. ''The Frontier People: The Greater Southwest in the Protohistoric Period.'' Albuquerque: U of NM Press, 1987, pp. 285-310〕 (See La Junta Indians) The first Spaniards came to Presidio in 1535, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions stopped at the Native American pueblo, placed a cross on the mountainside, and called the village ''La Junta de las Cruces''. On December 10, 1582, Antonio de Espejo and his company arrived at the site and called the pueblo ''San Juan Evangelista''. By 1681, the area of Presidio was known as ''La Junta de los Ríos'', or the Junction of the Rivers. Five Jumano towns were along the Rio Grande to the north of the junction, consisting largely of permanent houses.〔Gary Clayton Anderson, ''The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), p. p. 21〕 In 1683, Juan Sabeata, the chief of the Jumano nation, reported having seen a fiery cross on the mountain at Presidio and requested that a mission be established at La Junta. The settlement in 1684 became known as ''La Navidad en Las Cruces''.〔http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/JJ/bmj7.html〕 The missions La Navidad en las Cruces, San Francisco de los Julimes, San Antonio de los Puliques, Apostol Santiago, and Santa María de la Redonda may have been established on the Texas side of the Rio Grande at La Junta.〔María Eva Flores, C.D.P., and Julia Cauble Smith, "LA JUNTA DE LOS RIOS", Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ryl01), accessed April 28, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.〕 About 1760, a penal colony and military garrison of 60 men were established near Presidio. In 1830, the name of the area around Presidio was changed from ''La Junta de los Rios'' to ''Presidio del Norte''. White American settlers came to Presidio in 1848 after the Mexican War. Among them was John Spencer, who operated a horse ranch on the United States side of the Rio Grande near Presidio. Ben Leaton and Milton Faver, former scalp hunters for the Mexican government, built private forts in the area. The handful of Anglo settlers who came to the region were assimilated into the Hispanic population and their descendants are primarily Spanish speakers today. During the Mexican Revolution, General Pancho Villa often used Ojinaga as his headquarters for operations and visited Presidio on numerous occasions. In 1849, a Comanche raid almost destroyed Presidio, and in 1850, Indians drove off most of the cattle in town. A post office was established at Presidio in 1868, and the first public school was opened in 1887. In 1897, President William McKinley appointed George B. Jackson, an African American former buffalo soldier, as customs collector at Presidio, a position he held until his death in 1900. Jackson, a businessman from San Angelo, was considered the "wealthiest colored man in Texas" in the second half of the 19th century.〔Suzanne Campbell of Angelo State University, San Angelo, "George B. Jackson, Black (or African-American) Businessman, Rancher, and Entrepreneur", West Texas Historical Association, annual meeting, Lubbock, Texas, April 2, 2011〕 In 1930, the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway reached Presidio, and the town incorporated. The population grew from 96 in 1925 to 1,671 in 1988, but the number of businesses declined from 70 in 1933 to 22 in 1988. At the end of 1988, Presidio experienced a population boom, due in part to previously undocumented immigrants enrolled in the amnesty program. The population in 1990 was 3,422. The 1959 movie ''Rio Bravo'' featured the town. As of 2007, Presidio's local economy is based largely upon employment at Presidio Independent School District, United States Customs and Border Protection, and local retail businesses. Formerly, Presidio was home to several truck-farming operations, focused mainly on onions and cantaloupes. Those operations ceased in the late 1990s. In 2010, Presidio built the world's largest sodium-sulfur battery to provide power when the city's lone line to the United States power grid goes down.〔http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/texas-town-turns-monster-battery-backup-power〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Presidio, Texas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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