South Texas Courthouses: Uvalde, Zavala, Dimmit, La Salle, & Frio

Uvalde County Courthouse & Square

Dave Billingsley and I left Houston on Thursday morning at 4:00 am headed west to Uvalde, Texas our first county seat of the day.  This would be a 675 mile round trip that would take us to Uvalde, Crystal City, Carrizo Springs, Cotulla, and Pearsall. One of the first things we like to do on these trips is get breakfast at McDonald's.  Our first attempt at a rest stop at the Mc Donald's in Schulenburg.  It was 5:45  and not open, so we pressed on stopping in Seguin for some sausage Mc Donald's a sausage tortilla and coffee.  We passed south of San Antonio and headed west on US90 to Uvalde.

We arrived in Uvalde around 8:30.  After photographing the exterior of the courthoue, I went inside and photographed the interior, including the courtroom.  This courthouse was designed by one of the famous Texas architects, Henry T. Phelps.

  From Uvalde, I programmed the GPS to Crystal City, county seat of Zapata County.  Crystal City and Zapata County are known for its spinach production.  There's even a statue of Popeye in town across from city hall.  The courthouse is UNREMARKABLE, a modern 70's one story ugly building.  I got a picture of Popeye and we continued south on US83.

Popeye is better looking than their courthouse

Our next stop was Carizzo Springs, the county seat of Dimmit County.

The terrain in this part of Texas is "brush country," with mesquite, Texas Huisache, cactus and rattlesnakes.  There is quite a lot of oil production & exploration going on by the number of oil field trucks on the road.  Many acres around Crystal City and Carizzo Springs are cleared and in agriculture production.  As you would expect the crops have to be irrigated during growing season and whoever is in the irrigation systems business is making a fortune.  The other big money is deer hunting on huge South Texas ranches.  Deer hunting here is big money and people by thousands of dollars for hunting leases.  We turned east on SH85 then turned south on FM468 to Cotulla.

Our next stop was Cotulla, Texas, county seat for La Salle County.  This is where the famous deer contest, "Muy Grande" is held every year.  It also had the most interesting courthouse.  It is a "Moderne" design and no that's not a misspelled word.  It was built in 1931 at the peak of the "Art Deco" designed architecture.

La Salle County Courthouse, Cotulla, TX

 This courthouse was also designed by Henry T. Phelps.  The county was named after a French explorer who died in Texas many years ago.  We left Cotulla and headed north on IH35.  Our last stop of the day was Pearsall, Texas, Frio County.  I photographed the courthouse, exterior and interior, and we looked for a place for lunch.  Our favorite is BBQ, however we didn't find a place.  We elected to press on back to Houston.  The time was around 1:00 PM.  We arrived back at David's house at 4:30pm stopping once for gas.  The little Prius gets about 48 mpg and is an inexpensive vehicle for doing this type of photogaphy.  This makes 116 counties visited and courthouse photographed so far.  I am about out of one day trips and will have to take two and three day trips if I am going to finish this project.