Blackrock County

Blackrock County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located on the Edwards Plateau, West of the Hill Country on a branch of Devils River. The county was named for the town of Blackrock, originally the county seat, so called for its heavy concentration of biotite gneiss that bands the typically light hills with dark bands, especially along river beds.

The county boasts a population of 150,000, almost half of which is concentrated in the county seat of Six Crosses, though neighboring Council Springs represents the only other home rule city in the area. The county is also home to Blackrock National Reserve, a park that was ceded to the Federal Government in 1904.

History

Blackrock County was first settled in 1736 when the San Felipe Mission was established by Spanish settlers looking for fertile land east of Devils River.

By 1755, a presidio and church had been added to the mission, and a small trade town sprung up where modern day Six Crosses sits.

In 1840, the town of Blackrock reached a population of nearly 600, eclipsing San Felipe as the economic and political center of the region, rivaling other booming towns in the region, largely due to its position between a pair of tributaries of Devils River, creating a natural defensive barrier.

In 1876, the Texas Legislature incorporated Blackrock County, with Blackrock as the county seat.

In early 1904 a weather incident and fire destroyed much of Blackrock and the area around the former city was ceded to the Department of the Interior. Council Bluffs was named the new county seat.

In 1935, oil was discovered near Six Crosses, changing the economic makeup of the county and bringing about a boom in the town's population.

In 1952, a countywide vote was held, and Six Crosses was named the new county seat of Blackrock County.

In 2012, A&G DeGraaf moved its Texas headquarters to Six Crosses after discovering an untapped resource of oil near the boundary of Blackrock National Park, causing a boom in population that is expected to be reflected in the 2020 census.

Business and Tourism

Through much of the 1700s and early 1800s, Blackrock County was home to a number of ranches and small trade towns, though by the mid-1800s, much of the industry had moved to furnishing supplies to individuals in transit to and from northern Mexico. This remained true, with the population of the county hovering around 3,000 near the turn of the century.

In the 1930s, as America geared up for the Second World War, surveyors discovered oil fields north-east of Six Crosses, until then a small farming village, and soon the population of the town boomed from a few hundred to almost double the size of the county population. Oil would remain a major economic driver until the 1970s when it was thought that the reserves were exhausted, and the county business council began to focus its economic attention on tourism with the establishment of the Blackrock Tourism Board.

Through the 2010s, the renewed focus on outdoorsmanship in the state park and the construction of a new resort on the existing hot springs would maintain Six Crosses as the dominant economic center of the county, and in 2012, A & G DeGraaf would discover further untapped oil resources and secure the lands from local residents, opening a branch of the surveying and mining outfit in Six Crosses, and once again breathing life into the town.