Name: Bexar County once extended to Wyoming
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Bexar County once extended to Wyoming

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIf you think Bexar County is big now, consider that it once stretched across half of Texas and extended all the way to Wyoming.The area now within the county limits was once home to 125 small, independent bands of Native American hunter-gatherers collectively called Coahuiltecans, according to the Bexar County website. During the late period of Mexican rule from 1821-1836, Texas was divided into four departments, with the region of Bexar stretching west to the Rio Grande.After independence from Mexico was secured at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the new Republic of Texas government formed the county of Bexar, with San Antonio as its seat of government, as one of 23 original counties. It took in most of Texas to the north and west, as well as parts of what now are New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas, with an elongated strip of land reaching due north into Wyoming. The Congress of Texas claimed that, based on the Treaty of Velasco signed by Santa Anna, the republic’s western boundary ran the entire length of the Rio Grande to Colorado, then north to the 42nd parallel in Wyoming.“Bexar County originally stretched from what we know today all the way out to El Paso and into the Panhandle,” said James Harkins, director of public services for the General Land Office’s Archives &amp; Records division. “It was the largest county and largest land district. It made up half of the state. That’s because San Antonio was the westernmost major city for most of the 19th century.”More InformationChanging boundariesThis interactive map created by the Newberry Library lets you select a date and shows you where the Bexar County boundaries were then: .Here are some Bexar County changes:The first apparent change for Bexar County was on Dec. 12, 1837, in the Mina/Bastrop County area.The next was on Nov. 28, 1839 in north Texas, where the Fannin land district is.In January of 1842, a minor change was made in the Guadalupe County area.On March 24, 1846, Comal County was formed, and slight changes were made to Bexar County.On May 12, 1846, the largest change was made in the Bexar County boundary in the Milam County area, but Bexar was still pretty much intact.On Jan. 28, 1848, Webb County was created in South Texas.On Feb. 12, 1848, Medina County was created. It was the first to be created not adjoined to an already established county boundary.Feb. 23, 1848, Gillespie County was created.March 15, 1848, Santa Fe County was created. This was a huge part of Bexar County, and this county no longer exists.After 1848, there was rapid development of counties being carved out of Bexar County and Santa Fe County with border changes.Bexar County retained its sprawling configuration when Texas was annexed as the 28th U.S. state in 1845. Survey jurisdictions known as land districts were formed for the Land Office by an 1846 state law that defined the limits of the counties to help administer land grants. There were 35 original land districts, including Bexar, with one surveyor in each district functioning under the Land Office.“These are the earliest counties, essentially,” Harkins said.But after the Mexican War of 1846-1848, Texas and U.S. officials differed on the location of the state’s north and western boundaries. Hostilities nearly erupted between federal troops and Texas militias over a portion of the Bexar territory that now is New Mexico. The U.S. Congress considered proposals to divide Texas into two or three states.Finally, under an agreement known as the Compromise of 1850, the federal government offered Texas $10 million in exchange for the disputed land to the north and west. It was approved by Congress and passed by Texans in a special election by a 3-1 margin. Bexar County was downsized as well, as the expansive jurisdiction was divided into 128 counties between 1845 and 1876.“And so as different population centers started building up throughout western Texas, they would start carving out counties from the Bexar Land District and Bexar County,” Harkins said.As large counties created before annexation were divided into smaller units, the Legislature added more counties in the decades after U.S. annexation. Kenedy County, the last of the 254 Texas counties to be created, was formed in 1921.Today, Bexar County encompasses 1,256 square miles — slightly bigger than Rhode Island — and has more than 1.8 million residents.Scott Huddleston is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories . | |

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIf you think Bexar County is big now, consider that it once stretched across half of Texas and extended all the way to Wyoming.The area now within the county limits was once home to 125 small, independent bands of Native American hunter-gatherers collectively called Coahuiltecans, according to the Bexar County website. During the late period of Mexican rule from 1821-1836, Texas was divided into four departments, with the region of Bexar stretching west to the Rio Grande.After independence from Mexico was secured at the Battle of...

Bexar County once extended to Wyoming

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