Edwards County
Rocksprings, Edwards County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Atop the Edwards Plateau, extending into the scenic Nueces Valley. Angora goat capital of the world. The economy is based on ranching. Wild game is abundant. Created in 1858 and organized 1883 from old Bexar district. Named for Haden Edwards (1813-1865), an early leader and colonizer in Texas. First county seat was Leakey; present boundaries were created, and county seat was moved on April 13, 1891, to Rocksprings. First courthouse and jail were built that year. After a fire in 1897, the present courthouse was erected; it withstood a destructive tornado that claimed 72 lives in the county in 1927. First officials to serve the county (1891-1893) as it is presently constituted were the following: James M. Hunter, County Judge; W. M. Sanford, County and District Clerk; Ira L. Wheat, Sheriff and Tax Collector; S.A. Hough, County Attorney; W.H. Cowan, County Treasurer County Commissioners: John Eaton, Precinct No. 1; C. H. Kirchner, Precinct No. 2; H. Schweithelm, Precinct No. 3; M. M. Bradford, Precinct No. 4 (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Spread across the Edwards Plateau and dipping into the scenic Nueces Valley, Edwards County was created in 1858 and organized in 1883 from the old Bexar district, taking its name from early Texas colonizer Haden Edwards. Ranching built its economy, and it once styled itself the Angora goat capital of the world. The county seat moved to Rocksprings in 1891, whose courthouse survived a fire in 1897 and, in 1927, a devastating tornado that killed 72 people.
Why it matters
Edwards County typifies the ranching frontier of the Texas Hill Country, its very name a link to the empresario era of Anglo colonization.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Edwards County sits high on the Edwards Plateau, a broad limestone tableland in southwest Texas where the Hill Country fades into drier ranch country. The soil is thin and the land is rocky and cut by canyons, and to the east it drops toward the Nueces River valley. This country is better for grazing than for plowing, and that one fact has shaped almost everything about its history.
The Texas Legislature created the county on paper in 1858, carving it from the vast old Bexar district. For years the area stayed thinly settled frontier, and the county was not formally organized until 1883. In the late nineteenth century, ranchers were moving into the western Hill Country as the region became safer for settlement and markets for livestock and wool grew.
The county's boundaries changed as settlement filled in. The first county seat was Leakey. In 1891 the county took its present shape and moved the seat to the new town of Rocksprings, which has been the center of county life ever since.
People & events
The county is named for Haden Edwards, whom the marker describes as an early leader and colonizer in Texas. The name links this ranching county to the early decades of American settlement in Texas, when colonizers brought families into what was then a Mexican province.
When Rocksprings became county seat in 1891, residents built a courthouse and jail that same year, and the marker names the first officials of the reorganized county, from County Judge James M. Hunter to the four precinct commissioners. These were the people who turned a line on the map into a working local government, recording deeds, keeping order, and collecting taxes on the frontier.
The courthouse has survived disasters. After a fire in 1897, the county built the courthouse that stands today. In 1927 a destructive tornado struck, and the marker records that it killed 72 people in the county, a terrible toll for such a sparsely populated place. The courthouse stood through the storm and has remained a symbol of the community's endurance.
Its place in the American story
Edwards County is part of one of the more unusual chapters in American agriculture. The rough, brushy land of the Edwards Plateau turned out to be well suited to goats, and this region became the center of mohair production in the United States. Mohair comes from Angora goats. The county's claim to be the 'Angora goat capital of the world' reflects how thoroughly ranching, with goats and sheep alongside cattle, came to define the area.
The county's story also follows a pattern that repeated across the American West. A legislature drew a county on paper, settlement came slowly, local government was organized later, and the county seat moved as population shifted. Courthouses like this one were the anchors of rural life, the places where land, law, and community came together.
The 1927 tornado is a reminder that the frontier's dangers did not end when the frontier closed. Small, isolated communities faced natural disasters with limited resources, and they rebuilt through neighbors helping neighbors. That story plays out across rural America.
If you visit
Rocksprings is small, quiet, and high up, and you feel the plateau around you: wide skies, rocky ground, live oaks and brush, and ranchland stretching off in every direction. The courthouse that survived the 1927 tornado is the natural place to start. Take a minute to think about what the town went through while that building stood.
Keep an eye out along the roads for goats and sheep, the livestock that made this county's reputation. The marker notes that wild game is abundant, and deer and other wildlife are a common sight in this country, especially around dawn and dusk.
Edwards County is a destination for a slower road trip through the western Hill Country. The drive east toward the Nueces valley is especially scenic, with the plateau breaking into canyons and river country. Services are spread far apart in this part of Texas, so plan fuel and supplies before you set out.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Haden Edwards
Related events
- · 1927 Rocksprings tornado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Turner-Davis Ranch Headquarters
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Established in 1921 on the rugged limestone country of the Edwards Plateau, the Turner-Davis Ranch raised Angora goats for the mohair industry that thrived in this hard-to-farm terrain. Owned first by Ruby and Helen Davis and later by the Turner family and their heirs, its pioneer-style headquarters were built to last and improved by each generation. The ranch relied heavily on Mexican labor, including workers brought through the Bracero program, before it was sold and subdivided in 2003 after 82 years.
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