Garwood, TX

Garwood is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in southern Colorado County, at the junction of Texas 71 and Farm to Market Road 950. The 2020 census counted 510 residents. Eagle Lake is 13 miles northeast, Columbus 20 miles north, and El Campo 17 miles south. The Colorado River crosses the local map at the FM 950 bridge, while flat fields around town show why irrigation and rice farming became central to Garwood’s story. The surrounding roads also carry students and farm traffic between the county’s small communities.

Marcus H. Hill built the Red Bluff Irrigation System in 1896 to draw rice farmers into the region, and local growers were producing rice by 1901. Garwood’s first school opened in 1904, and Rice Consolidated Independent School District serves students today. Wharton County Junior College is the designated community college for the district. Garwood is a small Colorado County place organized around a highway junction, an irrigation system, a school district, and the river bridge that connects the fields on either side.