DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Town of Fashing, out in Atascosa County. Now, before there was a town here at all, there was a trail. The Old San Patricio Trail, running from San Antonio down toward the McMullen and McGloin colony in the area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Long before anybody platted a single lot or hung a shingle, travelers and drovers were movin' through this country, and the land itself was divided among the Butler, Hickok, Tom, and Rountree ranches. Stage stops dotted the route — Belle Branch, Rock Spring, Rountree's, and Tordilla — the kind of waypoints that kept a traveler's hope alive between one horizon and the next. Fast forward to 1915, when somebody finally decided to make it official and platted a town.
They called it Hickok. Clean name, strong name, made good sense given the ranching history of the land. One problem: the United States Post Office Department disapproved it.
Now, that's a particular kind of setback — you've got yourself a whole town and no approved name to put on the mail. So somebody, somewhere, looked down at a popular tobacco and read the tag. It said Fashion.
And from that tag came Fashing. Not Fashion, mind you — Fashing. The town had a name, the mail had an address, and the story had its first good twist.
The community didn't waste any time putting down roots. A first schoolhouse went up in 1917, a second in 1921. The Methodist church organized in 1922, and by 1925 they'd erected their first house of worship — a building moved in all the way from Bastrop.
Then came St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in 1934, and the Martin Luther Lutheran Church raised up in 1948. The present school building was completed in 1952.
Layer by layer, congregation by congregation, classroom by classroom, Fashing built itself into something real. But here's where the story takes a turn that even the old stage stop riders couldn't have predicted. Beneath all that quiet Atascosa County ground, something was waiting.
First local oil production came out of the Weigang Field in 1946. That was just the opening act. In 1954, five miles to the north, at a place called Tordilla Hill — same name as one of those old stage stops — crews made the first major uranium discovery in the entire state of Texas.
Let that settle a moment. A tobacco tag names your town, and a hill named for an old waypoint puts Texas on the uranium map. Then came further petroleum strikes in the Fashing Edwards Limestone Field in 1958, and after that, gas and sulfur processing plants were built out here by the Elcor Chemical Co., the Lone Star Producing Co., Sinclair Oil and Gas Co., and Warren Petroleum Corp.
This little spot on the Old San Patricio Trail had become a center for mineral development. And as of 1968, when this marker was written, the only commercial uranium operation in all of Texas was right here, near Fashing. The town that almost got named Hickok, that borrowed its identity from a tobacco tag, turned out to be sitting on some of the most consequential ground in the state.
Sometimes the land knows something the mapmakers don't.
What the marker says
Near the Old San Patricio Trail, leading from San Antonio to McMullen and McGloin colony, in area of Gulf of Mexico. In this vicinity were stage stops at Belle Branch, Rock Spring, Rountree's, and Tordilla. Land was part of the Butler, Hickok, Tom and Rountree ranches. Town was platted in 1915 as "Hickok." However, after the U.S. Post Office Department disapproved that name, the tag on a popular tobacco -- "Fashion" -- inspired adoption of the name "Fashing" for the town. First schoolhouse was built in 1917; a second, 1921. The Methodist church, organized 1922, erected first house of worship (building moved in from Bastrop) in 1925. In 1934, St. Elizabeth Catholic Church was built. The Martin Luther Lutheran Church was erected 1948. Present school building was completed in 1952. A center for mineral development. First local oil production was from Weigang Field, 1946. Tordilla Hill (5 mi. N) was site of first major uranium discovery in Texas in 1954. After further petroleum strikes in Fashing Edwards Limestone Field, 1958, gas and sulfur processing plants were built by the Elcor Chemical Co., Lone Star Producing Co., Sinclair Oil and Gas Co., and Warren Petroleum Corp. Currently, the only commercial uranium operation in Texas is near here. (1968)