TINAJA, TEXAS. Tinaja is on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway just north of Antelope Draw and two miles northeast of San Esteban Lake in northeastern Presidio County. The site was selected as a railroad station when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway extended it tracks from Paisano in 1930. The first train to run over the railroad's completed tracks to Mexico City left Tinaja on November 9, 1930. The special train carried a polo team and a delegation from nearby Fort Russell to Mexico City for a competition. When the KCM&O became the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe in 1965, Tinaja remained a station on the line. The name is Spanish for "large earthen jar."
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cecilia Thompson, History of Marfa and Presidio County, 1535–1946 (2 vols., Austin: Nortex, 1985).
