Three Rivers, TX

Three Rivers is a Live Oak County city of 1,474 residents in the 2020 census, set in the Brush Country between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. U.S. 281 and State Highway 72 meet near town, just south of where the Atascosa and Frio rivers join and north of the Frio's meeting with the Nueces. The river geography gives the city its name, while the railroad shaped its founding: Annie T. Hamilton paid for a depot on her land in 1913, and the settlement first carried the name Hamiltonburg.

Three Rivers' history also includes the hard geography of segregation. The original town plan placed a Mexican section between the river and railroad tracks west of the business section, a pattern that remains part of the city's historical record. Today Three Rivers Independent School District includes an elementary school, junior high, and high school, and the city remains a service point for the surrounding ranch country. Natural gas and glass-making later added industry to the river-and-rail setting.