Medina County, Texas Trivia Quiz

Answer: 5

The counties are Bandera (north), Bexar (east), Atascosa (southeast), Frio (south), and Uvalde (west).

Zavala County is to the southwest, but they just touch at the corner, similar to the four-corner states (Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah). Since a point is not a border (it has no length), areas that meet at a point are not considered bordering.

Answer: US-90 & I-35

US-90 cuts through the county east/west, nearly dividing it into equal pieces.

I-35 cuts through the southeast corner of the county. The segment of the highway is part of I-35 going from San Antonio to Laredo and into Mexico (where it becomes Mexico Hwy 85).

I-10 goes northwest away from San Antonio and doesn't go into Medina County at all.

Answer: Medina, TX

There are actually two places called Medina, TX. Neither of them are in Medina County.

One is a unincorporated area in Bandera County. It is along the Medina River, which also goes through Medina County. It has about 500 residents.

The other is a census-designated area in Zapata County, just northeast of Zapata, TX. It has about 3000 residents.

Answer: The acronym of the company that created the reservoir

The Medina Irrigation Company (MICO) originally built the community as a camp to house the 1500 immigrant laborers and their families who built Medina Dam.

Medina Dam was the fourth-largest dam in the US when it was completed in 1913. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Answer: no

Many of Texas's counties are rectangular. When the original Bexar county (which occupied the western half of what is now Texas) was split up into smaller counties, they were *mostly* made up of little rectangles. However, the northeast corner of Medina follows the course of the Medina River, then has a NE/SW border until it meets Bexar County.

So it roughly a concave/convex hexagon.

Answer: 8

They are D'Hanis, Devine, Hondo, Lytle, Medina Valley, Natalia, Northside, and Utopia ISDs.

Some ISD are completely in the county (Hondo, D'Hanis). Some spill into neighboring counties (Medina Valley, for example). And others spill into Medina County from neighboring counties (Utopia [from Real Co.], Northside [from Bexar Co.]).

Answer: 1920

The 1920 US Census shows a 12.9% decrease in population.

The 1880 census showed the biggest percentage increase (116.2%), from 2,078 to 4,492 residents.

The 2000 census showed the biggest absolute increase, from 27,312 to 39,304 (43.9%).

Answer: 0 %

The county seat, Hondo, is at 29 degrees, 20 minutes north latitude (29º20'N), about 6 degrees north of the tropics.

All of the continental US is north of the Tropic of Cancer. But the 50th state, Hawaii, is entirely south of it.

Answer: Dunlay

Quihi is a ghost town located nine miles northeast of Hondo. It sits at the intersection of FM-2676 and Quihi Creek. The Quihi Schützen Verein (marksmen club) was established in 1890. The club is still active but renamed the Quihi Gun Club and claiming a county-wide membership of 1,000.

New Fountain is located two miles west of Quihi. It was founded in 1846, by Henri Castro's colonists from the nearby settlement of Vandenburg. When the springs upstream on Verde Creek dried up they moved to a new water source found four miles downstream, calling their settlement New Fountain for the spring.

Dunlay (not a ghost town) is an unincorporated community about six miles west of Castroville and eight miles east of Hondo on US-90. The town was named after Jerry Dunlay, a local train conductor. Dunlay, which was originally called Enterprise, was established in 1881 along the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway.

Answer: True

Much of the eastern boundary of Medina County is actually in the same ZIP Codes that are called San Antonio. But these areas are not in the *city limits* of San Antonio itself.

There is a small portion in the northeast corner of Medina Co. where the city limit of San Antonio actually *does* extend over the border. It's portions of the area around Government Canyon State Natural Area, and it includes portions of TX-211 between Culebra Rd. and Bandera Rd.