About the Project
Taming the Wild Horse Desert explores the origins, relationships, and built environment of the families who settled the Wild Horse Desert, otherwise known as the Nueces Strip, during the years before and after the region was annexed to the United States.
The project is headed by Marie Saldaña, an architectural historian and cultural heritage data designer at the College of Information Science at the University of Arizona. Her paternal relatives hail from Hebbronville, Texas, where their ranch in the Agua Nueva de Arriba grant had been in the family since the 1780s. Around 2018 she began trying to untangle the complex web of relationships that connected people, and to search for visual ways to understand the data that underlies the history of the region. This project is the result of that effort.
This is a work in progress. Though new information will be added on an ongoing basis, the database is not comprehensive, and is intended as a reference and a starting point for researchers.
Get in touch! Email mariesaldana@arizona.edu with questions and comments.