MAVERICK COUNTY 

Welcome To Maverick County, Texas!

County Seat - Eagle Pass

Maverick County is in the northwestern section of the Rio Grande plain region in southwest Texas. The Rio Grand forms Maverick County's western and international border with Mexico; the county is bordered on the north by Kinney County, on the east by Zavala County, and on the south by Webb County. Eagle Pass, the county  seat and most populous community, is in southwestern Maverick County on the Southern Pacific Railroad, immediately east of the Rio Grande opposite Piedras Negras, Mexico. 

 On March 27, 1849, Captain Sidney Burbank established Fort Duncan, previously known as Camp Eagle Pass, on a site two miles north of the ford at Adjuntos Pass. A steady stream of immigrants bound for the gold fields of California made their way to the fort in caravans bearing such names as the Natchez California Company, the Defiance Gold Hunters, and the Mississippi Mining and Trading Company.

Frederick Groos was among the first to establish a commercial business in Eagle Pass, when he secured a contract to haul supplies for the army at Fort Duncan. Groos was able to convince seventy Mexican families to settle near the fort and engage in the freighting business. The majority of these families emigrated from the Mexican river villages and missions of San Juan Bautista, San Jose, Santo Domingo, San Nicolas, La Navaja, and San Isidro. Such names as Rodriguez, San Miguel, Cardenas, Pena, and Paniagua, early settlers of Eagle Pass, trace their roots to these Mexican villages.

Maverick county was carved from Kinney County and was named for Samuel A. Maverick in 1856. The estimated population in 1860 was 726. Fort Duncan was occupied  by Confederate troops during the Civil War, and near war's end was the only port of entry open for export of the Confederacy's cotton. So much cotton was passing through Eagle Pass by 1864 that cotton bales were lined from the river to the edge of town.

At the close of the war Gen. Joseph Orville Shelby bivouacked 500 Confederate soldiers of the Trans-Mississippi Army in the Eagle Pass area. On July 4, 1865, when crossing the Rio Grande on the way to Mexico to offer his troops' service to Maximillian, Shelby stopped in the middle of the river to bury the last Confederate flag to fly over his troops. Legend has it that the flag was wrapped around the plume of his hat, weighted down with a stone from the river bank and lowered into the river.

The abandonment of Fort Duncan during the Civil War enabled the Indian population to gain control for the region. Following the war Black Seminole Scouts were organized at Fort Duncan to restore order and that is exactly what they did.

Telegraph communication reached Eagle Pass in November of 1875 with the completion of a military line between Fort Clark and Fort Duncan.

The historic Maverick County Courthouse was completed by pioneer builder William Hausser on April 4, 1885, at a cost of $20,489. The courthouse, site of the celebrated Dick Duncan murder trial in 1889, exhibits a modified Gothic Architecture with high windows and an overall Spanish fortress appearance, and was declared a Texas historic landmark in September of 1971.

Mining in Maverick County began about the time Fort Duncan's establishment in 1846; soldiers at the fort mined the ore that was the Olmos Coal Formation immediately north of Eagle Pass. The Olmos Coal, Coke, and Oil Company at Olmos were the largest coal producers in Texas around the turn of the century.

In 1990, the population of Maverick County was 36,378. Eagle Pass with 20,651 was the largest town.2000 census has Eagle Pass at 22,413.

                       
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  2001-Present © Linda Simpson
             

05/25/2009