Real County

Julius Real was the only Republican in the Texas Senate, elected and re-elected from a Democratic district that took in San Antonio. Born in 1860 on his parents' ranch on Turtle Creek south of Kerrville, he served eight years as a Kerr County commissioner and then six as county judge and school superintendent at once. Though a Prohibitionist, he was one of eleven senators who in 1911 left Austin and hid in the hills of Bandera County to deny a quorum when prohibition was about to be enacted, the Whiskey Rebellion. He died at Turtle Creek in 1944.

What the plaque says

Real County Located on the Edwards Plateau, Real County is in an area of rolling terrain broken by the canyons of the Frio River. Because of raids by Comanche, Apache, and Lipan Apache Indians, white settlement was hindered until after 1881. Mission San Lorenzo de La Santa Cruz was founded by the Spanish in 1762 near present Camp Wood. The county was created on April 3, 1913, from Edwards, Kerr, and Bandera counties. Organized on July 26, 1913, it was named in honor of Julius Real (1860-1944), a prominent businessman and state senator, 1909-1914 and 1924-1928. Leakey, the county seat, was established by John Leakey (1824-1900), a pioneer settler in the region. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Real County Historical Museum — steps away
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.
• Garner State Park — 8.9 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — 33 mi
  A 140-foot shaft into a cavern outside Rocksprings, seen only on guided tours from a platform at the rim as some three million bats spiral out on summer evenings.

More markers nearby

• Real County — steps away
• John Leakey — steps away
• Leakey Cemetery — steps away
• Catherine McLauren — steps away