For decades, “Winter Texans” have heeded the seductive call of southern Texas and have journeyed to the Rio Grande Valley in vast numbers. The town of Donna helps keep the entertainment flowing for escapees with regularly scheduled square dances, jam sessions and craft sales. In February, the Old West takes over Donna City Park for the Texas Chisholm Trail Festival with free music and dancing and a kids’ carnival.
When it comes to the great outdoors, the Rio Grande Valley is a superstar in the world of birding. Bracketing the town of Donna is the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge to the south, protecting migratory birds since 1943, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge to the north. This stretch of the Great Texas Birding Trail experiences not just 500 different species of birds and 300 types of butterflies but is home to more than 1,200 varieties of plants.
Planning a visit? Stay at Bit O Heaven RV Park.
History buffs will want to check in on the exhibits at the Donna Hooks Fletcher Historical Museum, named after the daughter of one of the town’s early developers, J.T. Hooks. Local treasures include the town’s first telephone and personal effects of town founder Fletcher. Included in the collection is a bible that she clutched in one hand while her other hand brandished a six-shooter as she defended her land from Mexican revolutionaries in 1910 after they crossed the Rio Grande River.
The museum on South Main Street is housed in the Spanish-flavored American Legion Hall that was the first in the world when built by Border Post No. 107 in 1920.