Gallery includes Brackettville, Fort Clark & Spofford, Texas
Located along the Mexican border in southwest Texas, Kinney County was established in 1850 and named it for Henry Lawrence Kinney, a Texas Legislator. Today the county is called home to about 3,600 people. Its county seat is Brackettville.
The area was first inhabited some 6,000-10,000 by ancient Indians. Years later, other Native Americans came to the area including several bands of Apache, as well as members of the Coahuiltecan, Jumano, Tamaulipan, Tonkawa and Comanche tribes. It was first visited by Spanish explorers in 1665. The first settlement was made in the late 18th Century when several Franciscans lived on Las Moras Creek near the center of the county.In 1834, English land speculators John Charles Beales and James Grant attempted to establish an English-speaking colony called Dolores at the site. Streets were laid off and 59 colonists were brought in, but the project was abandoned.
The United States Army established Fort Clark in June, 1852 on Las Moras Creek, and named it after John B. Clark, who had died in the Mexican War. Brackettville was founded the same year and named for Oscar B. Brackett, who came to set up a stage stop and opened the town's first dry-goods store. Brackett became a stop on a stage line from San Antonio to El Paso Road, but it settlement grew very slowly because of continuous Indian attacks.
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