Welcome
Little Hotel and Firestone Store, Pearsall, Texas (postcard)
The first residents of the area were natives and, by 1685, Europeans were beginning to explore it. This area of Texas was largely unsettled before the Civil War because people were afraid of the Comanche tribes who hunted horses here.
One of the first people to settle permanently in Frio County was Ben Duncan, who arrived in 1856, and one of the first to ranch the area was James Berry (ca. 1860). In 1860 eleven families of White settlers and two Blacks made up the population of forty-two; three families were living on the Leona River near the Frio-Zavala county line. Early settlers included Mexican War veterans Benjamin Slaughter, William A. A. Wallace, and James W. Winters. [Handbook of Texas]
Frio County is the northeast corner of the Winter Garden Region of Texas, an agricultural region noted for producing fruits and vegetables year-round. Major crops have been onions, spinach, beets, strawberries and some citrus.
The Frio River was named for the temperature of the water. It's spring-fed and maintains an average temperature of about 81°F (27.2°C) with a 15 (9) degree variant. It's relatively shallow and crystal-clear and is a favorite among the 'innertubers'. The river runs from its humble beginnings in Real County meandering southeasterly for about 200 miles to Live Oak County. Frio County was named for this amazing river which flows through the county from northwest to southeast.