Mason County Texas map
30.70° N · 99.24° W · County seat: Mason · 932 sq mi
Mason County is the place in Texas to look for topaz. Blue topaz, the state gem, weathers out of the granite of the Llano Uplift on ranches north and west of the town of Mason, and for decades landowners have charged rockhounds a day fee to dig for it.
The town of Mason sits near the centre of the county on US-87. The Llano River crosses the south; the James River joins it from the southwest.
Where Mason County is
The county sits on the northwestern edge of the Llano Uplift, where the Edwards Plateau limestone has been stripped away to expose much older granite and gneiss. That geology is the reason for the topaz, and the reason the landscape here — rounded pink outcrops, sandy soil, live oak — looks different from the flat-capped limestone country immediately west.
Six counties border it: McCulloch north, San Saba northeast, Llano east, Gillespie south, Kimble southwest and Menard west. Fredericksburg is 37 miles southeast, Kerrville 46 miles south, San Angelo 88 miles northwest and Austin 94 miles southeast.
Mason County was created in 1858 out of Gillespie County, in the wave of counties organized behind German settlement of the Fredericksburg country. It is named for the army post already standing on the hill above the townsite.
Fort Mason
The army built Fort Mason in 1851 on a hill overlooking the site of the present town, one of the line of posts meant to cover the settlements from raids out of the west. Several well-known officers passed through it; Robert E. Lee held his last command in the United States Army here in early 1861 before leaving Texas at secession. The post was abandoned after the Civil War when the frontier line moved on, and its stone was carried off for buildings in town. A reconstructed officers' quarters stands on the hill today, with the outline of the old parade ground around it and a view over the county.
Whether the fort was named for Lieutenant George T. Mason, killed in fighting near Brownsville during the Mexican-American War, or for General Richard Barnes Mason, the military governor of California, was never settled, so the county's name has two candidates.
The courthouse and the 2021 fire
The courthouse in the middle of the Mason square dates from 1909, a stone building of the type that defines a county seat in this part of Texas. In February 2021 a fire set deliberately gutted it, destroying the roof, the courtroom and a great deal of the county's records. The walls survived. Rather than build something new on the edge of town, the county chose to rebuild the courthouse inside its original walls, salvaging and re-cutting stone, and the work restored the building to the square. It is a short case study in why Texas counties fight to keep the courthouse where it is.
Town and roads
| Place | Type | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Mason (county seat) | City | 2,123 |
Mason is the county's only incorporated place; Art, Katemcy, Hilda, Loyal Valley and Pontotoc are unincorporated communities.
- US-87 – northwest–southeast through Mason, to Brady in one direction and Fredericksburg in the other.
- US-377 – southwest from Mason to Junction in Kimble County; northeast it runs with US-87 toward Brady.
- SH-29 – begins at Mason and runs east through Llano, Burnet and Georgetown.
- SH-71 – clips the northeast of the county on the Brady–Llano line.
There is no interstate. I-10 is reached south through Fredericksburg or west through Junction.
Rivers, bats and a feud
The Llano River crosses the southern half of the county, joined from the southwest by the James River. Above the James, on land held by a conservation group, is a cave that shelters a very large summer colony of Mexican free-tailed bats; the evening emergence draws visitors on the days it is open, and the access road involves low-water crossings that are impassable after rain.
The county's other inheritance is the Hoo Doo War of 1875, a feud that began with cattle theft, hangings by vigilantes and the killing of a deputy, and ran on through a string of killings before the Texas Rangers put a stop to it. It is one of the best-documented range feuds in the state, and much of it happened within sight of the Mason square.