La Morita Historic District

La Morita is a ranch district in a box canyon about five miles southwest of Shafter, Texas, built around the year-round Morita Springs. It includes a small two-room adobe cottage, the interpretive outline of El Fortin de la Morita, restacked stone livestock walls, a stock reservoir, former irrigation channels, and an Indian mound with a rock shelter, caves and rock markings. The fort was rebuilt in 1992 on its exposed original foundation, since no historic photographs exist. The cottage was restored by 1994. The property is tied to Milton Faver, who bought the land in 1880 and used it as the center of his sheep and goat ranching. Its walls, corrals and water system reflect frontier conditions, when fortified houses were needed, and local adobe building methods. Faver gave the ranch to a relative in 1889, shortly before his death, and it stayed in that family until 1966. The district is significant for agriculture and for settlement of the area between 1865 and 1889.