Atascosa County

Atascosa County (at-uhs-KO-suh) is south of San Antonio on Interstate Highway 37 in the Rio Grande Plain region of south central Texas. Jourdanton, the county seat, is located on state highways 16 and 97 in central Atascosa County thirty-three miles south of San Antonio and 100 miles northwest of Corpus Christi. The geographic center point of the county is 28°50' N, 98°30' W. The county covers 1,218 square miles of level to rolling land. Elevation ranges from 350 to 700 feet, and the soils are generally deep with loamy surface layers and clayey subsoils. Along the southern borders the light-colored soils have limestone near the surface. In some areas the soils are gray to black, cracking and clayey, and expand and shrink considerably. In the South Texas Plains vegetation area, the subtropical dry-land vegetation consists primarily of cactus, weeds, grasses, thorny shrubs and trees such as mesquite, and live oak and post oak. Many of the open grasslands have been seeded with buffalo grass. Between 41 and 50 percent of the county is considered prime farmland. Wildlife in Atascosa County includes white-tailed deer, javelina, turkey, fox squirrel, jackrabbits, foxes, ring-tailed cats, skunks, and opossum. The main predators are bobcats and coyotes. Ducks, cranes, and geese migrate across the county. Tanks are stocked with catfish, bass, and sunfish. Mineral resources include clay, uranium, sand and gravel, and oil and gas. Other minerals and products include caliche and clay, lignite coal, construction and industrial sand, sulfur, and uranium.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.