Refugio County Texas map
28.32° N · 97.16° W · County seat: Refugio · 818 sq mi
Refugio County takes its name from the last Spanish mission founded in Texas, Nuestra Señora del Refugio, moved to the site of the present county seat in 1795. For a stretch of the mid-20th century the county was one of the largest oil producers in the state; today 6,741 people live on 818 square miles of coastal prairie between the Mission and Aransas rivers.
Refugio sits where US-77 and US-183 meet. Woodsboro is southwest along US-77; Bayside and Austwell are on the bay shore at the eastern edge.
Where Refugio County is
The county lies on the coastal prairie between Victoria and Corpus Christi, reaching the water at Copano and Mission bays but with no Gulf frontage of its own. Six counties surround it: Victoria to the north, Calhoun northeast, Aransas southeast, San Patricio south, Bee west and Goliad northwest.
Two rivers cross it. The Mission River runs past the town of Refugio and empties into Mission Bay; the Aransas River forms the southern boundary with San Patricio County before reaching Copano Bay. Forty-eight of the county's 818 square miles are water, most of that bay bottom at the eastern end.
Victoria is 35 miles northeast in a straight line and Corpus Christi 39 miles southwest, which puts most of the county within an hour's drive of both. San Antonio is 111 miles northwest.
Mission, battle and county
Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio — Our Lady of Refuge — was founded in 1793 near the coast for the Karankawa, and moved inland in 1795 to the spot where the town of Refugio now stands. It was the last mission the Spanish established in Texas. The Mexican municipality of Refugio was organised in 1834, and when the Republic of Texas set up its first counties in 1836 Refugio was one of them; it was formally classified as a county in 1837. San Patricio, its neighbour to the south, was created at the same time around the other Irish colony.
In March 1836 the mission compound was the scene of the Battle of Refugio, part of the campaign that ended at Goliad. Texian companies sent to evacuate settlers were surrounded by Mexican troops at the mission; most who surrendered were marched to Goliad and executed with Fannin's command a week later. The mission ruins are gone, but the Catholic church in the centre of town stands on the site.
Refugio is also where Nolan Ryan was born, in 1947, before his family moved to Alvin.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population |
|---|---|---|
| Refugio | Town (county seat) | 2,705 |
| Woodsboro | Town | 1,328 |
| Bayside | Town | 279 |
| Austwell | City | 117 |
Four incorporated places hold about two thirds of the county's people; the rest live on ranches and in unincorporated settlements such as Tivoli, Bonnie View and Vidauri. Woodsboro grew as a railroad and farming town and later took in oilfield work. Bayside is a small settlement on the north shore of Copano Bay. Austwell, the smallest, is the last town on the road out to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, whose entrance is just over the line in Aransas County — the wintering ground of the whooping crane flock.
Roads
- US-77 – the main north–south route, entering from Victoria County and running through Refugio and Woodsboro toward Sinton and Corpus Christi. It is being rebuilt in stages as Interstate 69E, so stretches through the county carry both designations.
- US-183 and US-77 Alternate – run together northwest out of Refugio toward Goliad and Cuero.
- State Highway 35 – the coastal route across the southeast of the county, connecting Tivoli and the Copano Bay causeway with Rockport one way and Port Lavaca the other.
- State Highway 239 – east from Woodsboro to Austwell and the SH-35 junction at Tivoli.
- FM 136, FM 774, FM 2441 and FM 2678 – the ranch roads that reach the rest of the county, including the route from Austwell toward the wildlife refuge.
The oil years
Drilling began along the Gulf Coast salt domes in the 1920s, and in the 1930s the Tom O'Connor field was brought in on ranch land in the southern part of the county. It turned out to be one of the largest oil fields in Texas, and for decades Refugio County produced far more oil than its size or population suggested. Woodsboro and Refugio both grew on it, and the county's population peaked in the middle of the century at well above what it is now.
Production has long since declined from its peak, though pump jacks, tank batteries and gas plants are still ordinary sights along the FM roads, and pipeline right-of-way crosses the county toward the industrial docks in San Patricio County. Cattle and grain hold the rest of the land, on the same coastal prairie the mission cattle grazed.