Wilson County Texas map
29.17° N · 98.09° W · County seat: Floresville · 809 sq mi
Wilson County is where San Antonio stops and the peanut country starts. Floresville calls itself the peanut capital of Texas and has thrown a Peanut Festival every October for decades, but the county's fastest change is on its northwest side, where subdivisions along US-87 and SH-97 pushed the population from 49,753 in 2020 to an estimated 55,415 by 2024.
Floresville sits on US-181 near the middle of the county, on the San Antonio River. Bexar County and the San Antonio city limits are off the northwest corner; Cibolo Creek marks part of the northern line.
Where Wilson County is
The legislature carved the county out of Bexar, Guadalupe and Karnes counties in 1860 and briefly called it Cibolo County before settling on Wilson, for James Charles Wilson, a state senator of the early 1850s. Bexar County is still the neighbour that matters: downtown San Antonio is 30 miles northwest, and Wilson County belongs to the San Antonio–New Braunfels metropolitan area.
Guadalupe County lies north, Gonzales County northeast, Karnes County southeast, Atascosa County southwest and Bexar County northwest. New Braunfels is 37 miles north, San Marcos 50 miles north and Victoria 70 miles southeast.
Towns
| Place | Type | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Floresville (county seat) | City | 7,217 |
| Poth | Town | 1,812 |
| Stockdale | City | 1,408 |
| La Vernia | City | 1,080 |
| Elmendorf (part) | City, mostly in Bexar County | 5 |
Nixon, on the Gonzales County line, is also partly in Wilson County. The four incorporated towns together hold about a quarter of the county's people; the rest live on farm roads, in unincorporated communities such as Sutherland Springs, Pandora and Saspamco, or in the newer subdivisions strung between La Vernia and the Bexar County line.
Roads
- US-181 – the county's spine, entering from Bexar County in the northwest, running through Floresville and Poth and leaving southeast for Karnes City, Beeville and Corpus Christi.
- US-87 – crosses the northern half from San Antonio through La Vernia, Sutherland Springs and Stockdale, then on to Nixon and Cuero.
- SH-97 – the east–west route through Floresville, running west toward Jourdanton in Atascosa County.
- SH-123 – cuts the northeast corner through Stockdale, north to Seguin and south to Karnes City.
- SH-119 – a short farm-country connector in the north of the county near La Vernia.
- Loop 181 – the business route through Floresville, left behind when US-181 was widened around the town.
Peanuts, and what grows here
The sandy soils along the San Antonio River drew peanut farmers in the early twentieth century, and peanuts have been the county's signature crop ever since. The Wilson County Peanut Festival fills the streets of Floresville each October with a parade, a queen's coronation and a livestock show and a peanut-themed street fair. Acreage has fallen since the mid-century peak, and corn, grain sorghum, hay and cattle now share the fields, but the name has stuck.
The other agricultural fact of the county is watermelons and vegetables on the river bottom, and the other economic one is oil and gas: Wilson County sits on the northern edge of the Eagle Ford Shale, whose core lies just southeast in Karnes and Atascosa counties, so the county gets some of the drilling and much of the truck traffic.
The San Antonio River and the missions road
The San Antonio River enters the county from Bexar and runs southeast past Floresville toward Karnes County, joined by Cibolo Creek near the northeast corner. It was the route the Spanish used between San Antonio de Béxar and the presidio at La Bahía, and the ranchos strung along it — including the Flores de Abrego holdings that gave Floresville its name — are the reason the towns line up along the river instead of along the later railroad.
Floresville was also the home town of John Connally, governor of Texas from 1963 to 1969, who kept a ranch outside it.