Kimble County

The Depression reached the ranch county: unemployment rose from 23 in 1930 to 153 in December 1935 and 303 by July 1936, and farms fell from 454 to 402 before recovering to 443 in 1940. Even so the population grew almost 20 percent in the 1930s, to 5,064 in 1940. A little oil came in the mid-1940s. Farm consolidation and mechanization then thinned the county: it had 4,619 people in 1950, 3,943 in 1960 and 3,904 in 1970, before rising to 4,122 by 1990.

What the plaque says

Kimble County JUMANO AND APACHE INDIANS INHABITED REGION WHEN SPANISH EXPLORERS TRAVELED ACROSS IT IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES, AND WERE DISPLACED BY THE COMANCHE TRIBE BY THE MID-19TH CENTURY. AREA WAS UNDER MILITARY JURISDICTION OF FORTS TERRETT (1852-54) AND McKAVETT (1852-59,1868-83), WHICH WERE AIDED IN DEFENSE BY THE TEXAS RANGERS. COUNTY WAS CREATED FROM BEXAR COUNTY, 1858, NAMED FOR GEORGE C. KIMBLE (1810?-1836), WHO DIED DEFENDING THE ALAMO. ORGANIZED IN 1876, WITH THE COUNTY SEAT FIRST AT KIMBLEVILLE, THEN JUNCTION IN 1877. HAVEN FOR LAWLESS ELEMENT UNTIL THE RANGERS RESTORED PEACE IN 1880s. RANCHING IS PRIMARY INDUSTRY, PRODUCING WOOL AND MOHAIR. ERECTED BY THE STATE OF TEXAS - 1973

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 1.0 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 26 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 31 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• Fight of Sheriff's Posse with Cattle Rustlers — steps away
• Colonel John Griffith — steps away
• Stevenson, Coke R., Texas Statesman — steps away
• John Sterling Durst Pioneer Minister — steps away