Randado

Randado is a ranching community at the junction of State Highway 16 and Farm Road 649, twenty-five miles southwest of Hebbronville in west central Jim Hogg County. The townsite was within what was originally a ranch of 80,000 acres owned by Hipolito García. The community name comes from the highly ornate lassos, called randas, that were made on the ranch. In 1836 García built a headquarters out of lumber hauled from Corpus Christi and also built a stone house, a stockade rampart, and a chapel. A post office was established for the community in 1882. In 1891, during the Garza War, Catarino E. Garza encamped near the ranch. By 1896 a general store operated at the community. The small town had three general stores and an estimated population of seventy-five in 1915. Between the mid-1930s and mid-1960s it maintained an estimated thirty-five residents and two or three businesses. The post office was discontinued in 1959. In 1968 Randado consisted of an estimated fifteen residents and the chapel, a cemetery, and a business. In 1983 a business, the chapel, and the cemetery remained. In 2000 the population was fifteen. By 2017 that number had decreased to six.