Frio Town

Overview

A county seat the railroad missed

Frio City was laid out in 1871 beside the Presidio Crossing of the Frio River, a ford on the Old San Antonio Road. The crossing got its name from the cannonballs and swords found there, and Spanish and Mexican expeditions, Santa Anna's army of 1836 among them, are thought to have used it. The new town became the first seat of Frio County and soon had a courthouse, a stone jail, a shingle mill, a brick factory and a limekiln.

It was a cowboy town in the 1870s, and some estimates put its population as high as 1,500 in the early 1880s. Then in 1880 the International–Great Northern Railroad ran its line through the county and missed Frio City. Pearsall grew up on the tracks, took the county seat in 1883, and most people moved there. The town was renamed Frio Town in 1886 and faded to a school and five houses by 1929.

The 1877 stone courthouse and the 1872 jail still stand, on ranch land the Roberts family has owned for generations. Legend says the jail held Sam Bass, Jesse and Frank James, and William Sydney Porter, the writer O. Henry. No record we found confirms it.

Timeline

Frio City to Frio Town

1. 1871A. L. Odin lays out Frio City just south of the Presidio Crossing of the Frio River, on the Old San Antonio Road. It becomes the first seat of Frio County.
2. Jan 1872The first courthouse is finished with cypress shingles hauled from Leakey. A stone jail is built the same year, and a post office opens.
3. 1877The courthouse burns. A two-story stone courthouse replaces it; the 1991 cemetery marker dates the courthouse to 1876. The last Indian raid in the area comes that spring.
4. Early 1880sPopulation estimates reach as high as 1,500.
5. 1880–1881The International–Great Northern Railroad passes the town by. Pearsall is founded on the line in 1881 and people start moving there.
6. 1883Pearsall becomes the county seat.
7. 1884W. Yancey Kilgore buys the old courthouse. It houses a store, the post office and Frio Academy.
8. 1886Frio City is renamed Frio Town.
9. 1929The community is down to the school and five houses.
10. 1953Mrs. A. C. Roberts owns most of the abandoned townsite, including the courthouse and the roofless jail.
11. 1990Left: the cemetery on FM 140 and the largely intact courthouse and jail on the private Roberts Ranch.
12. 2019KSAT finds the crumbling courthouse walls and the jail still standing in the brush, on land the Roberts family has held for generations.

Legend and record

Famous prisoners

The Handbook of Texas says the stone jail in time held Sam Bass, Jesse and Frank James, and William Sydney Porter, but it cites no jail records. The Roberts family tells a version in which the James brothers spent a night there. We haven't found jail records for any of them, so treat the list as local legend.

What's left

Courthouse, jail and cemetery

In 1990 the Handbook listed the cemetery and the largely intact courthouse and jail. KSAT's 2019 visit found the courthouse walls crumbling in the brush and the jail still standing, and the cemetery still in use. The Devine News reported in 2017 that the cemetery is the only part with public access.

• Stone courthouse ruins (1877)
• Stone jail (1872)
• Frio Town Cemetery

Historic maps

Frio Town on USGS maps, 1928–1992

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19281:62,50019541:250,00019851:100,00019921:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Pearsall is the closest city, half an hour away on FM 140. From San Antonio, take I-35 south and US 57 west, then FM 140. The routes end on a ranch road at the ruins, which are reported to be on private land, so stop at the cemetery on FM 140.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Frio Town in photos

The cemetery gate, 2015The cemetery marker (1991), 2015The 1936 state marker for Frio Town, 2016The 1954 San Antonio sheet

Visitor reports

Been to Frio Town?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Frio Town

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Texas index.

• New Fountain29.3 mi NE · Medina
• Quihi30.5 mi NE · Medina
• Las Vegas34.5 mi S · Dimmit
• Benton City34.6 mi E · Atascosa
• Dobrowolski40.8 mi E · Atascosa
• Ditto41.7 mi E · Atascosa
• Dabney49.1 mi W · Uvalde
• Catarina50.1 mi S · Dimmit

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Handbook of Texas Online, "Frio Town, TX" (Ruben E. Ochoa, rev. 2019), accessed October 19, 2026: founding, county seat, courthouse and jail, population, railroad, renaming, 1953 and 1990 condition, famous-prisoner story.
2. KSAT, "An abandoned courthouse and jail is all that is left of Frio Town, Texas" (February 20, 2019): the courthouse and jail ruins, Roberts family ownership, cemetery still in use.
3. Wikipedia, "Frio Town", retrieved October 2026: the ruins on the private Roberts Ranch in 1990, and the courthouse ruins counted as a historic courthouse by the Texas Historical Commission.
4. The Devine News, "Frio Town" (October 25, 2017): ruins on private property, only the cemetery open to the public, on FM 140.
5. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The cemetery gate, 2015: Darrylpearson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The cemetery marker (1991), 2015: Darrylpearson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The 1936 state marker for Frio Town, 2016: Darrylpearson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The 1954 San Antonio sheet: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Frio Town 1928, 1:62,500; San Antonio 1954, 1:250,000; Uvalde 1985, 1:100,000; Uvalde 1992, 1:100,000.