DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Aransas County. Now, Texas has two hundred and fifty-four counties, and most folks could spend a lifetime arguing over which ones matter most. But let me tell you about one that packs a whole lot of story into a very small package.
Aransas County. The second smallest county in the entire state of Texas. Second smallest.
And yet, somehow, it manages to hold three bays of the Gulf of Mexico within its boundaries. Copano, St. Charles, and Aransas.
Three bays. In the second smallest county in Texas. The land does not seem to have gotten the memo about modesty.
Now, Aransas County was created in 1871, carved out of the coastal portion of Refugio County. So right from the start, this place was shaped by the sea, by the coast, by water on every side. And that coastline has been drawing people in for a long, long time.
Long before 1871, this area saw early Indian inhabitation, Spanish exploration, and then Anglo colonization efforts rolling through in the 1830s and 1840s. Layer after layer of human ambition, all of it drawn to the same stretch of bays and wetlands and saltwater air. Today the communities of Aransas County are kept alive by fishing, agriculture, off-shore oil production, bird watching, and tourism.
Bird watching right there alongside oil production. That is a Texas combination if I have ever heard one. And perhaps the crown jewel of the whole county is the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1937.
All of that, tucked into the second smallest county in the state. Small in size. Anything but small in story.
What the marker says
Created out of the coastal portion of Refugio County in 1871, Aransas County is the second smallest county in Texas. Within its boundaries are three bays of the Gulf of Mexico: Copano, St. Charles, and Aransas. The area was the site of early Indian inhabitation and Spanish exploration, as well as Anglo colonization efforts of the 1830s and 1840s. Aransas County communities are supported by such industries as fishing, agriculture, off-shore oil production, bird watching, and tourism. The county is home to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1937. (1990)