Duval County

Duval County is in south central Texas about fifty miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico and seventy-three miles north of the Rio Grande. It is bordered by Webb, La Salle, McMullen, Live Oak, Jim Wells, Brooks, and Jim Hogg counties. San Diego, the county seat and most populous town, is on the Texas Mexican Railroad at the intersection of State highways 44 and 359 and Farm road 1329, about fifty-two miles west of Corpus Christi and eighty miles east of Laredo. The county's center point is nine miles northwest of Benavides at 27°42' north latitude and 98°30' west longitude. State Highway 44 passes through the county from east to west, and State Highway 16 crosses from north to south. Two highways cross the county diagonally: U.S. Highway 59 and State Highway 359. The county comprises 1,795 square miles of nearly level to undulating terrain with an elevation ranging from 250 to 800 feet above sea level. The northern part of the county drains into the Nueces River, while the central and southern parts drain into the Laguna Madre through Baffin Bay. Northern Duval County is characterized by loamy cracking or crumbly clayey soils, deep to moderately deep, that overlie indurated caliche. Western Duval County is characterized by deep soils with loamy surface layers and loamy or clayey subsoils, and loamy soils with indurated caliche at shallow to moderate depths. Eastern Duval County is characterized by poorly drained loamy soils and well-drained dark soils with loamy surface layers and clayey subsoils. The vegetation consists of small trees, shrubs, and cacti, with large areas of brush. The county's mineral resources include caliche, clay, salt domes, sandstone, uranium, oil, and gas. The climate is subtropical-subhumid. The average minimum temperature is 43° F in January, and the average maximum temperature is 98° in July. The growing season averages 298 days annually. The rainfall averages about twenty-four inches. Less than 1 percent of the land in Duval County is considered prime farmland. Duval County's climate has likely remained unchanged for centuries, but beginning in the late nineteenth century cattle ranching, which was the county's main industry, and farming have had significant effects on the county's vegetation and water supply. Overgrazing led to the destruction of the watershed and clogged the springs that fed the county's streams, most of which are now intermittent, and, in combination with the suppression of grass fires, allowed mesquite to become dominant.

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.