Town of Fashing
Fashing, Atascosa County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Platted in 1915 near the old San Patricio Trail, this town was first called 'Hickok' until the post office rejected the name and residents borrowed 'Fashing' from a popular tobacco tag reading 'Fashion.' Early life centered on schools and churches, but the ground beneath proved the town's fortune: oil arrived in 1946, the first major uranium discovery in Texas came at nearby Tordilla Hill in 1954, and gas and sulfur plants followed. Fashing became a genuine center of mid-century mineral development.
Why it matters
Fashing's transformation from a trail-side farm town into an oil, gas, sulfur, and uranium hub captures how mineral wealth reshaped the economy and landscape of twentieth-century South Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
This corner of South Texas, in Atascosa County between San Antonio and the coast, was cattle and brush country for most of the nineteenth century. Old routes ran across it, including the San Patricio Trail, which connected San Antonio with the Irish colony established by the empresarios McMullen and McGloin in the Mexican era, toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Stagecoaches followed those trails, and small stage stops sprang up along them. The land itself was divided into large ranches. Then in the early twentieth century farming and new settlement began to fill in the countryside, and new towns were platted for growing farm communities.
The real transformation came later. After World War II the search for oil, gas and other minerals reached deep into South Texas, and the ground beneath quiet farm towns turned out to be worth far more than anyone expected.
People & events
The town that became Fashing was platted in 1915 on land that had belonged to several local ranching families. Its founders first called it "Hickok." When the U.S. Post Office Department turned that name down, residents found an unlikely inspiration: the tag on a popular tobacco, which read "Fashion." A version of that word, "Fashing," became the town's name, and it stuck.
The next decades were about building a community. Schoolhouses went up in 1917 and 1921, and a newer school in 1952. A Methodist congregation organized in 1922 and moved a church building in all the way from Bastrop for its first house of worship. Catholic and Lutheran churches followed. It was a typical South Texas farm town, close-knit and built by its own residents.
Then came minerals. Local oil production began in 1946. In 1954, Tordilla Hill, a few miles north, was the site of the first major uranium discovery in Texas. After further petroleum strikes in 1958, several energy companies built gas and sulfur processing plants nearby, and Fashing became a center of mineral development.
Its place in the American story
Fashing's story shows how the mid-twentieth-century energy boom reshaped rural America. In the years after World War II, demand for oil and gas soared, and small towns across Texas suddenly found themselves at the center of national industries.
Uranium added another dimension. In the early years of the atomic age, the federal government strongly encouraged the search for domestic uranium for defense and nuclear power. A major uranium discovery in the South Texas brush tied a small farming community directly to the Cold War and the nuclear era.
The town's name tells a smaller, very American story too: the practical ingenuity of settlers who, told they couldn't use one name, took one from a tobacco label. Fashing is where a frontier trail, a farm town and the atomic age all meet.
If you visit
Fashing is a small, rural community in the brush and farm country of Atascosa County. The landscape is low and open, dotted with mesquite and ranch land, and it's easy to imagine stagecoaches crossing this country on the old San Patricio Trail.
Look around for traces of the town's long history: its churches, its school and the scattered signs of the oil, gas and mineral industry that changed the area. The marker itself, from 1968, captures the town at the height of its mineral boom, so it's a snapshot of a particular moment.
Fashing makes an interesting detour on a drive south from San Antonio toward the coast. Distances are long and services are limited out here, so plan ahead, and enjoy the wide sky and quiet back roads.
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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Themes & tags
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