Colorado County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, this stretch of Texas you're rollin' through has got some history baked right into the ground beneath your wheels. We're talkin' about Colorado County, carved out of Stephen F.

Austin's First Colony, and friend, that is about as deep into the roots of Texas as you can get. The county was created on March 17, 1836, and organized in 1837, which means folks were already puttin' down stakes and figurin' out who owned what fence line before the dust had even settled on the Republic itself. But here's the part I love.

The name. See, Spanish explorers were movin' through this region, and they looked at that river rollin' past and they called it the Colorado, which means Red. Now why red?

Because they took it for the Brazos, that reddish river runnin' to the east. A case of mistaken identity, written into the map of Texas for all time. From that river, the county took its name.

And the county seat? That's Columbus, sittin' right there at the heart of it. One explorer's honest mistake, and now it's on every road sign, every deed, every map from here to forever.

What the marker says

A part of Stephen F. Austin's First Colony. Created March 17, 1836. Organized in 1837. The river traversing the region was called "Colorado" (Red) by Spanish explorers who mistook it for the reddish Brazos. From the river, the county took its name. Columbus, the county seat.