Kimble County

Duane's take

The official marker for Kimble County tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in the Texas Hill Country, where the land runs rugged and the rivers cut deep, sits Kimble County, and this place has been contested ground for a long, long time. When Spanish explorers first crossed this region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was the Jumano and Apache Indians who called it home.

But by the mid-nineteenth century, the Comanche had displaced them both, and the land carried a different kind of tension. The United States Army took notice. Fort Terrett held military jurisdiction here from 1852 to 1854, and Fort McKavett ran its watch from 1852 to 1859, then again from 1868 all the way to 1883.

And even with those forts anchoring the region, the Army didn't go it alone, the Texas Rangers rode alongside them in the work of defense. Now, the county itself was carved out of Bexar County in 1858, and the name it carries is not chosen lightly. Kimble County honors George C.

Kimble, born around 1810, dead by 1836, a man who died defending the Alamo. That's the kind of name you put on a place you mean to keep. Still, it took until 1876 for the county to get itself organized.

The county seat started out at Kimbleville, then picked up and moved to Junction in 1877. And organized or not, this stretch of Texas had a reputation. For a time, it was a haven for the lawless element, and that is the marker's own word for them.

It wasn't until the Rangers moved in and did what they did in the 1880s that peace was finally restored. These days, Kimble County runs on ranching, wool and mohair the primary products of a land that took generations of hard contestin' before anyone could settle in and work it. George C.

Kimble died at the Alamo so a county could bear his name. Seems like the least the county could do was eventually earn it.

What the marker says

JUMANO AND APACHE INDIANS INHABITED REGION WHEN SPANISH EXPLORERS TRAVELED ACROSS IT IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES, AND WERE DISPLACED BY THE COMANCHE TRIBE BY THE MID-19TH CENTURY. AREA WAS UNDER MILITARY JURISDICTION OF FORTS TERRETT (1852-54) AND McKAVETT (1852-59,1868-83), WHICH WERE AIDED IN DEFENSE BY THE TEXAS RANGERS. COUNTY WAS CREATED FROM BEXAR COUNTY, 1858, NAMED FOR GEORGE C. KIMBLE (1810?-1836), WHO DIED DEFENDING THE ALAMO. ORGANIZED IN 1876, WITH THE COUNTY SEAT FIRST AT KIMBLEVILLE, THEN JUNCTION IN 1877. HAVEN FOR LAWLESS ELEMENT UNTIL THE RANGERS RESTORED PEACE IN 1880s. RANCHING IS PRIMARY INDUSTRY, PRODUCING WOOL AND MOHAIR. ERECTED BY THE STATE OF TEXAS - 1973