Lake Casa Blanca is located in Laredo, just minutes from the Mexican border. Here you will find outdoor fun on water and landand the perfect place for a family outing.

Lake Casa Blanca has provided water recreation for the south Texas area for more than 50 years. The lake has 1,680 surface acres and is an impoundment of Chacon Creek, a tributary of the Rio Grande.

Webb County and the city of Laredo originally ran this park. After signing a 50-year lease, the state opened the park as Lake Casa Blanca International State Park in 1991. The 525-acre park sits on the eastern city limit of Laredo.

Water-ski, swim, boat and fish on the lake or hike, bike, picnic, bird, geocache, study nature and camp along the shore.

Trails for mountain-biking and hiking will take you through beautiful and varied landscapes. The park also has a swim area, playgrounds, a baseball field, and tennis, volleyball and basketball courts. Webb County operates an 18-hole golf course nearby. Take a virtual tour with our Interactive Trails Map.

All campsites have water and electricity some have sewer hookups, too. Reserve one of our picnic pavilions or group halls for your next gathering.

Lake Casa Blanca International State Park lies on the Western Rio Grande Plain.

The rock layers in the park are sandstones and mudstones of the Laredo Formation. These date to the Eocene Epoch, about 38 to 54 million years ago.

Gravel from the Pleistocene Epoch about 11,700 to 2.6 million years ago covers large areas of the park east of the lake. Many of the rock outcrops in this area consist mostly of fossil oyster shells. Oysters lived here millions of years ago when the area was an estuary, or a waterway where ocean tide meets river current.

Archeological sites in the park indicate the presence of humans for around 3,000 years. Artifacts found in the area indicate that humans have been passing through south Texas for 11,000 years.

Cabeza de Vaca, an early Spanish explorer, came through this area on foot in 1535. He found a relatively intact, highly mobile culture made up of small bands of hunting and gathering peoples. They depended on the seasonal availability of small game, prickly pear fruit, mesquite beans, mussels and snails.

In the 1600s, the Lipan Apache and Tonkawa, followed by the Comanche, arrived in south Texas on horseback and disrupted the hunter-gatherers way of life. Disease took its toll, also. After the Spanish established missions in this area in the early 1700s, the native bands were quickly absorbed, and their culture and language were largely lost.

19th century map showing Texas territory extending into present-day Colorado.San Agustn de Laredo was founded in 1755, part of an effort to keep the French from moving into Spanish lands. Ranching emerged as the main industry here, as rainfall did not support farming.

The Rio Grande corridor has been the source of many conflicts. Disputes over the border between Texas and Mexico, and later between the United States and Mexico, simmered throughout the 19th century. Even into the 20th century, civil unrest in Mexico often spilled across the river into what is now Texas.