MCMULLEN COUNTY
McMullen County has an area of 1,143 square miles of primarily a brushy plain and is crossed by the Nueces and Frio Rivers. Elevation varies between 200 and 642 feet above sea level. Shallow loamy soils predominate in parts of the county while saline clay soils are found elsewhere. The mean low in January is 40 as compared to an average high of 98 in July. The county population of 851 is projected to grow only slightly to 866 by 2020 (Texas State Demographer, mid-range assumptions). Over half of the county’s inhabitants reside in the county seat of Tilden which is at the intersection of State Highways 22 and 16.
Lipan Apaches squeezed out the earlier Coahuiltecan Indians by about 1725. There was relatively little activity by the Spanish in the area and by the time of the Texas Revolution the population was limited to roaming Indian bands. In 1858 parts of Bexar, Atascosa, and Live Oak Counties were organized into McMullen County and Anglo-American settlement began slowly. Sheep ranching flourished during the 1880’s with as many as 80,000 sheep in the county but almost disappeared by 1900 due to several factors. An oil and gas boom sent the county’s population up sharply to perhaps 2000 in the 1920’s, a time when cotton farming became common. Economic factors led to a decline in the number living in the county over the following decades. Oil production, however, rose after the middle of the 20th century reaching almost six million barrels in 1989. Today most of the county’s land is devoted to ranching with only about two percent in cultivation. Lignite coal is also produced in McMullen County.