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The abandoned pay phone booth near the Border Patrol station at the Rio Grande River crossing in Los Ebanos, TX is a visual metaphor for the surrounding town.

A fjord south of the current site was used by the area's earliest settlers in the 1740s.  In subsequent years it was used by cattle rustlers, thieves, liquor smugglers, and most recently drug smugglers.

The ferry crossing was built in 1950connecting the towns of Los Ebanos, TX and Ciudad Diaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

A colonia formed in the town in the 1960s with a population of approximately 825 people living in 150 dwellings.

Colonias are unincorporated and unregulated communities built outside city limits.  They have minimal public services: no running water, sewer or electricity.  Illegal immigrants were lured to them by real estate developers who sold the land cheaply after the collapse of the cotton market in the 1960s.

The ferry crossing is a popular tourist attraction because it is billed as the last hand-drawn ferry in the U.S.

This, combined with the Duty Free store at the top of the hill, makes it very convenient for visitors to purchase cheap liquor, cigarettes, perfume designer purses and high-end watches.  They transport their purchases across the river into Mexico and return to Texas without even getting off the ferry.  Liquor and cigarettes, the most popular commodities are priced at less than half the cost of purchasing them in U.S. retail stores.

The ferry operation is a family owned business.  This gentleman is the conductor and collects the $.70 fare per person for the return trip from Mexico. The price for vehicles and passengers is $3.00.

Other family members provide the power for drawing the ferry back and forth across the river.  Tourists are encouraged to participate.

The toll booth on the Texas side sports signs warning passengers not to take photos of the Border Patrol Inspection Station or personnel.  Second only to the Duty Free shops, this is among the most profitable legal establishments in town.

Brady's is the larger of the two Duty Free shops.  Even here the product selection is very limited.  Thankfully, they carry our favorite essential liquids, the most popular cigarette brands and a small selection of beer.

The RBT shop, new in town this year, has a similar selection, but charges slightly more.  The sign on the shop next door says it's the town jail, but it is the storage room for the Duty Free store.

The souvenir shop sells Mexican arts and crafts, t-shirts, post cards and copies of old Pancho Villa photos  Customers can also get a glass of beer, soft drinks and ice cream here.

A picture postcard from ca. 1950, which we bought from the souvenir shop above, shows this building as a thriving tourist attraction.  The office on the left was a jail, in the center was a restaurant and at the right was a gun shop.  There were Roy Rogers type cowboys in front with their six-shooters on their hips and horses tied to railings at the front of the building.  The jail is now full of discarded clothing and trash bags left by illegal immigrants.

Here's a nice little place for rent in the residential section of town not too far from the ferry.

Note the amenities that come with this cute little bungalow:an outdoor fridg and a full-size sofa.

This place looks as though it was one of the nicer homes in town, once upon a time.  

There are a few modern, nicely kept homes in the village, a beautiful, Spanish style, Catholic church and a new Post Office.  There is still much room for development.

Whether Mario's was ever a successful restaurant or market is, for me, an unanswered question. It is now a family home, complete with several well-fed guard dogs and toys for the children

Los Ebanos is only a couple miles off the beaten path and hundreds, maybe thousands, of people visit the town every week primarily to visit the Duty Free shops.  It seems this would be an ideal location for a developer to build restaurants, shops and entertainment facilities that would create even greater tourism.