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The 2009 Memorial Illumination, held on Nov. 14, attracted more than a thousand visitors to the battlefield site and thousands more who observed the scene as they passed by on an adjacent roadway. The annual event is timed to coincide with Veterans Day in the U.S. and Day of the Dead in Mexico.
While the memorial observance actually took place over two days, Nov. 13-14, the candle lighting ceremony was held on Saturday.
The event relied upon several hundred volunteers who prepared the bags of sand and candles, then at sunset carefully placed each lit luminaria on the field. The luminaries shined until 8 p.m.
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All of the park's memorial observance activities over the two days were free of charge to the public.
The 2009 observance held a special significance as the battlefield site, owned by the Brownsville Community Foundation and managed in partnership with the NPS, was placed within the authorized boundaries of the park when Congress passed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act on March 30, 2009.
The change meant that National Park Service funds could now be used to help preserve the Resaca de la Palma site. It also included a name change: from Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site to Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park.
Palo Alto Battlefield NHP has the distinction of being the only unit in the National Park Service to preserve battle sites from the U.S. War with Mexico. It preserves the site of the May 8, 1846 battle of Palo Alto - the scene of the first major clash of the war between the United States and Mexico. The battlefield lies 10 miles north of the Rio Grande River in Cameron County, at the southern tip of Texas.
On May 8, 1846 troops of the United States and Mexico clashed on the prairie of Palo Alto. The battle was the first in a two-year long conflict that changed the map of North America. Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park preserves the site of this notable battle and provides an understanding of the causes, events, and consequences of the first war between independent Republics.
The park also works with partners to preserve and interpret Resaca de la Palma and Fort Brown, the scenes of additional fighting in the first campaign of that war.
For more information about the park, and the history of the conflict, visit the Web site at http://www.nps.gov/paal/index.htm. Palo Alto Battlefield is located on FM 1847 (Paredes Line Road) in Brownsville, just north of FM 511.
