
On a road that loops around the southernmost tip of Texas are found the components of a three-hundred-acre sugar plantation and mill built by French immigrant Brulay, who was the first to experiment with mechanized irrigation in the border region. Although the once imposing residence no longer stands, and the property is compromised by the introduction of an earthen levee, many of the brick buildings remain, although in various stages of disrepair, including a warehouse, tenant cottages, mill, and refinery—some of them with dentiled cornices and marks of wraparound verandas.