Menard County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located on the Edwards Plateau in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,962. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Menard. The county was created in 1858 and later organized in 1871. It is named for Michel Branamour Menard, the founder of

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

History

Around 8000 BC, Native American inhabitants arrived. Later Native Americans included

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

and

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...

. In 1757, Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros founded Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, as a support for Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission, for the Apache Indians. In the 1830s,

James Bowie James Bowie ( ) (April 10, 1796 – March 6, 1836) was an American military officer, landowner and slave trader who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He was among the Americans who died at the Battle of the Alamo. Stories of him ...

and Rezin P. Bowie scoured the San Saba valley seeking a silver mine that the Spanish had believed to be in the area. They were unsuccessful, but the legend of the Lost Bowie Mine, also known as the Lost San Saba Mine or the Los Almagres Mine, fed the imaginations of treasure-seekers for the next 150 years. Camp San Saba was established in 1852 to protect settlers from Indian attacks. The state legislature formed Menard County from Bexar County in 1858. The county was named for Michel Branamour Menard, the founder of Galveston. Menardville, later known as Menard, became the county seat. By 1870, the county population was 667: 295 were white, and 372 were black, possibly due to the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort McKavett. The next year, county residents elected their own officials. The county had an immigrant influx from Mexico. In 1911, the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad Company arrived. Gas deposits were tapped in 1929, but plugged for lack of a market. The local Parent-Teacher Association offered free lunches for needy children in 1931. In 1934, the Texas Relief Cannery was in operation. The Drought Relief Program bought cattle and sheep from area ranchers. A gas well was redrilled in 1941, and produced about seven million cubic feet of gas. In 1946, a small oilfield was discovered northeast of Fort McKavett, but was abandoned the following year. By the 1960s, oil and gas production had an average annual yield more than . In the 1980s, of the county's 40 oilfields, about 20 were still active, producing 132,000 to annually.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (0.03%) is covered by water.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 83 * US 190

U.S. Highway 190 * US 377

U.S. Highway 377 * Texas 29

State Highway 29

Adjacent counties

* Concho County (north) * McCulloch County (northeast) * Mason County (east) * Kimble County (south) * Schleicher County (west) * Sutton County (southwest) * Tom Green County (northwest)

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, 2,360 people, 990 households, and 665 families resided in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . The 1,607 housing units averaged . The racial makeup of the county was 87.54% White, 0.51% African American, 0.64% Native American, 0.34% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 9.79% from other races, and 1.14% from two or more races. About 31.69% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 990 households, 28.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.00% were married couples living together, 8.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.80% were not families. Around 30.40% of all households was made up of individuals, and 17.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.91. In the county, the population was distributed as 24.20% under the age of 18, 5.30% from 18 to 24, 21.90% from 25 to 44, 26.60% from 45 to 64, and 21.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $24,762, and for a family was $30,872. Males had a median income of $21,953 versus $20,000 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $15,987. About 20.00% of families and 25.80% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 39.90% of those under age 18 and 19.10% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

City

* Menard (county seat)

Unincorporated communities

* Callan * Erna * Hext * Saline

Ghost towns

* Fort McKavett * Sunnyside

Politics

In popular culture

The 1968 movie '' Journey to Shiloh'' features a group known as the " Concho County Comanches," and mentions Menard County.

References

External links

Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey (Menard Co)
*

{{Authority control 1858 establishments in Texas Texas Hill Country