El Oso

El Oso, on Farm Road 626 a mile north of Zunkerville in the southwestern corner of Karnes County, was the site of a general merchandise store and a cotton gin built in the 1920s to serve the surrounding farming community. Estimates of El Oso's population remained at fifty from the mid-1940s through the mid-1960s, after which no population figures were available. After the drought of the 1950s the nearby farms were abandoned, and El Oso's store and gin were closed. In 1971 a group of citizens from El Oso were instrumental in creating the El Oso Water Supply Corporation, which furnished water for many residents of Karnes County. In 2000 the population was thirty-five.