Falls City, TX

Falls City is a Karnes County city on the San Antonio River, where the 2020 census counted 514 residents. U.S. Route 181 and the Union Pacific Railroad run through town, with Karnes City, the county seat, ten miles southeast. Early Polish Catholic settlers founded Holy Trinity Catholic Church in 1902, and a parish school opened in 1911. The San Antonio River runs along the town's agricultural setting and gives Route 181 a geographic line.

The railroad shaped Falls City's growth and helped make it a predominantly Polish-American settlement. Holy Trinity remains the clearest marker of that migration story, while Falls City Independent School District serves students from Falls City and nearby Hobson, Cestohowa, and Pawelekville. Oil and uranium also sit in the town's industrial history: uranium tailings near Falls City were placed in a disposal cell completed in 1994 under federal cleanup law. Falls City's map joins a rail line, Route 181, a river, a Catholic church, and a school district in the South Texas ranch and oil country.