Stockholm on the Rio Grande: A Swedish Farming Colony on the Mesquite Frontier of Southernmost Texas (1912-1985)

Stockholm, Texas, was an early twentieth century Swedish colony in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The topic provides a fascinating micro-history of culture contacts, acculturation, and economic development in a frontier setting. The Swedish colony represented an island of Scandinavian culture in a predominately Hispanic area that was in the process of colonization by Anglo-Americans from the north. The story of Stockholm, Texas, is a case history of the impact on a small rural community of the mechanization and commercialization of American agriculture.

David E. Vassberg is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Texas-Pan American.