Real County Historical Museum

Leakey stands on the Frio just below the meeting of its East and West branches, the seat of Real County. Lipan Apaches, Comanches and Tonkawas lived in or crossed these canyons, and in 1762 the Lipan chief El Gran Cabezon, seeking protection from the Comanche, persuaded Spanish Franciscans to build a mission on the Nueces near present Camp Wood, in the west of the county. John Leakey, his wife Nancy and five others settled at the springs here in 1856. They cut the cypress along the streams into shingles and lumber at water-powered sawmills on the Frio. The town was the seat of Edwards County from 1884 to 1891, and when Real County was carved out in 1913, named for the state senator Julius Real, Leakey became its seat. Ranching took over, Angora goats above all, and tourism after it.

The county museum keeps what local families gave it, and it reads like an inventory of that life. Inside, a replicated log cabin has a parlor, kitchen and bedroom furnished with donated pieces. A large case holds stone dart points found nearby, made by people who lived along the Frio for thousands of years. The most theatrical piece is an ornate horse-drawn hearse from the 1880s, which still rolls in local parades.

Next door, a former blacksmith shop holds ranch tools, including a hand-powered machine for shearing wool and mohair. Outside are farm implements, a log corn crib and jail cells from the 1910s. John Leakey has a state historical marker of his own a few blocks away.