Page 23 Rio Grande Valley Visitors Guide 2023-2024 join us june 16th at 6:30pm for our quince celebration and open house! our Quince! Founded 2006 Opened 2008 celebrating WE'RE 301 S. Main St. • McAllen, TX Free Admission & Parking Available in Rear. Wed. - Friday: 1PM - 5PM 2nd and 4th Saturday from 12pm to 4pm (956) 687-1904 McAllenHeritageCenter.com 25-meter, 10 lane competition pool. Admission fees Monday through Friday (closed Wednesdays) are children and senior citizens for $3 and adults for $5, Saturday and Sunday fees are $5 and $10 respectively. For more information call (956) 402-4560 or visit the website at https://pharr-tx.gov/parks-recreation/aquatic-center/. Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan Del Valle – National Shrine Devout Catholics often make pilgrimages to see the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan de Valle in San Juan. The Shrine got its start in 1949 when Father Jose Maria Azpiazu, OMI, placed a replica of the image of the Immaculate Conception of San Juan de los Lagos in the parish Church at San Juan. Such was the number of pilgrims that in 1954 a new shrine was dedicated to house the image. Disaster struck the first shrine in 1970, when a pilot deliberately crashed his plane into the building after giving notice to the air control tower to warn the public because he was going to crash his plane into a church or school somewhere in the Valley. The faithful continued to make pilgrimages to the shrine, and the church grew in strength from the ashes of the old one. On April 19, 1980, the present shrine was dedicated. On June 12, 1999, the shrine was designated a “Minor Basilica” through official notification from the Vatican. The Basilica is located in San Juan, at 400 N. Virgen de San Juan Blvd. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. For information or tours call (956) 7870033 or visit www.olsjbasilica.org. La Sal Del Rey For centuries, this remote site was a destination for American Indians, Spanish settlers, Mexican traders, and Anglo-Americans who sought the rich source of valuable white crystals known as salt. La Sal del Rey is the site of a large salt lake and was South Texas’s main source of vital salt during the Civil War. The name La Sal del Rey is Spanish, meaning “The King’s Salt,” a reference to royal ownership of valued mineral sources in colonial times. Native Americans had been using the resource for eons, but for the Spanish, it was the mineral equivalent of a gold bonanza. Under special provisions of the crown, salt miners would carry it by carts, the tracks of which left deep ruts still
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