Mathis, TX

Mathis is a San Patricio County city along Farm Road 359 and Interstate 37, with ranch country and Lake Corpus Christi pulling in opposite directions. The 2020 Census counted 4,333 residents. The town began around the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Pacific Railroad; Thomas H. Mathis donated 300 acres for a townsite, and the railroad reached Mathis in 1913. Mathis incorporated in 1939 and grew as a trading center for ranches and farms reaching into several surrounding counties.

The lake is the big local turn in the story. In the 1930s the Nueces River was dammed and Lake Mathis formed; the name later became Lake Corpus Christi. Wesley E. Seale Dam, completed in 1958, raised the water level and helped turn the shoreline into a place for weekend homes, camps, boat ramps, fishing piers, and winter visitors. The city's economy moved through ranching, cotton, corn, vegetables, and later sorghum, but the local shorthand is still simple: Mathis is a small South Texas city with a very large lake nearby.