Local city information for San Marcos, TX

San Marcos is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, and is the county seat of Hays County. San Marcos is located on the Interstate 35 corridor, between Austin and San Antonio.
Founded on the banks of the San Marcos River, the area is considered to be among the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the Northern Hemisphere. San Marcos is home to Texas State University-San Marcos, and the Aquarena Center . The population was 50,371 in 2008.

Although the majority of San Marcos lies in Hays County, small portions of the city extend into neighboring Caldwell and Guadalupe counties. While the Hays and Caldwell county portions are part of the Austin–Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area, the small portion in Guadalupe County is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Archeologists have found evidence at the San Marcos River associated with the Clovis culture, which suggests that the river has been the site of human habitation for more than 10,000 years. The headwaters of the cool, clear river are the San Marcos Springs, fed by the Edwards Aquifer. The San Marcos Springs are the second largest collection of springs in Texas. Never in human history has the river run dry.

In 1689, Spaniard Alonso de Leon led an expedition from Mexico to explore Texas and establish missions and presidios in the region. De Leon's party helped blaze the El Camino Real (later known as the Old San Antonio Road), which followed present-day Hunter Road, Hopkins Street, and Aquarena Springs Drive (the route later shifted four miles to the south; it is now followed by County Road 266, known locally as Old Bastrop Highway). De Leon's party reached the river on April 25, the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist; the river was thus named the San Marcos.

In 1755, San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo presidio and the missions San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas, Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, and San Ildefonso were relocated from present-day Milam County to the San Marcos River. Historians still debate whether the Spanish settlements were located at the San Marcos Springs or another location. In April 1808, a small group of Mexican families settled at the Old Bastrop Highway crossing of the river, and named the settlement Villa de San Marcos de Neve. The settlers were plagued by floods and Indian raids, and the settlement was abandoned in 1812.

In November 1846 the first Anglos settled in the vicinity of the San Marcos Springs. The Texas Legislature organized Hays County on March 1, 1848, and designated San Marcos as the county seat. In 1851 a town center was laid out about a mile southwest of the headwaters of the river. The town became a center for ginning and milling local agricultural products. The town's most notable founder and early settler was Gen. Edward Burleson, a hero of the Texas Revolution and former vice president of the Republic of Texas. Burleson built a dam on the upper reaches of the river in 1849. The dam powered several mills, including one within present-day Sewell Park.

In the decade following the arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad in 1881, cattle and cotton provided the basis for the growth of San Marcos as a center for commerce and transportation.

In 1899, Southwest Texas State Normal School (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos) was established as a teacher's college to meet demand for public school teachers in Texas. In 1907 the private San Marcos Baptist Academy was established, furthering education as an important industry for the town. The demands of World War II forced the town's industry to diversify, and with the emergence of a manufacturing and light industrial sector the town began to experience growth.

In the 1960s, with the establishment of Aquarena Springs and Wonder World as attractions, the tourist industry became a growing part of the city's economy. By the 1960s what was now named Southwest Texas State University had grown into an important regional institution, and when coupled with the creation of Gary Job Corps Training Center in 1965, education became the largest industry in San Marcos. The remarkable growth explosion of Austin further allowed San Marcos to prosper.

By 1973, San Marcos and Hays County had joined the Austin Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. By that year the city's population had grown to 25,000 citizens, along with an additional Southwest Texas State University student body of 20,000.

By 1990, the city's population had grown to 28,743 and by 2000 it reached 34,733, and by 2008 the city's population had grown to 50,371, and the university now known as Texas State University, boasted a student body of 28,121.

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