MISSION, named after LOMITA MISSION, is the setting for the Texas Citrus Fiesta, a celebration glorifying the citrus industry of the state. Lomita Mission is a small chapel built in 1849. Three miles west of Mission is BENTSEN STATE PARK, which gives one an idea of how the Valley looked a half century ago—before dense brush growth gave way to irrigated farms. For many years William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued orator, was a nearby resident. The BRYAN HOME is two miles north of Mission. Westward, from Mission to Rio Grande City, is a Hollywood western setting, with shrines dotting the hilltops. At the entrance to the town is Fort Ringold, famed military establishment which served as a station for Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Zachary Taylor, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and John Pershing. Built as a cavalry post in 1847, today Fort Ringold is the campus of the Rio Grande City High School. Near Rio Grande City stands OUR LADY OF LOURDES, a replica of the world famous shrine as it exists in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France. ROMA, founded in 1768 as a townsite, bears such a striking resemblance to towns in the interior of Mexico that it was used as a location for the filming of the movie _Viva Zapata_. It is a sleepy little village perched on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande, some one hundred miles upstream from the Padre Beach area of Padre Island. The towering church and other local buildings are constructed of adobe brick and stone. Its surrounding hills abound in geological and botanical rarities: garnets, turquoise, agates. Petrified wood and fossils may be gathered along with many unique varieties of cactus—including the ceremonial “peyote.” Roma opens the door to FALCON DAM, built jointly by the United States and Mexico to impound the excess waters of the Rio Grande. The dam can be crossed into Mexico without cost or formality. NUEVO GUERRERO (meaning New Guerrero in Spanish), the Mexican community across the dam, has an interesting story of its own. Old Guerrero, which it replaced, founded a century and a half ago, was one of the original five Escandon colonies inundated by the Falcon Dam reservoir. The Mexican government then built a new town for its residents, complete with homes, shops, schools, etc. The city resembles a house of mirrors; each home looks like every other home. Stores and public buildings are the same. OLD ZAPATA had the same history, but the United States government provided the funds, letting the residents rebuild to each one’s fancy. Thus, the growth of the two communities has been along quite different lines. A little north of the Valley main street is EDINBURG, with a school district of nine hundred and forty-five square miles! This is the county seat of Hidalgo County and the home of Pan-American College. Each September the Whitewing Dove Fiesta is held.