George West

George West, the county seat of Live Oak County, is at the intersection of U.S. highways 281 and 59, sixty-three miles northwest of Corpus Christi, in the approximate geographic center of the county. It was named for George Washington West, who began ranching in Live Oak in the early 1880s. He purchased 1.5 leagues of land in June 1884 for $20,000 accumulated 116,000 acres of land in Live Oak County and 40,000 acres in McMullen County by 1889. In 1912 he donated his name, a townsite, $100,000, and thirteen miles of railroad right-of-way through his ranch in order to establish a town on a railroad. The San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad laid the tracks in 1913. George West was recorded in the county clerk's office of Live Oak County on September 22, 1914. In 1856, when Live Oak County was established the county seat was Oakville. George West became county seat in 1919. The town's first public school was opened in 1912 and enlarged in 1921. The first church service was held in an office building in 1914; in 1979 Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopal congregations were thriving in the town.

Originally the primary economic activity in the George West area was ranching and agriculture. Since the 1920s oil and gas have assumed an equal economic role. The population rose from 200 in 1925 to 1,000 in 1929. A sharp drop to 200 in 1933 was followed by a steady rise. In the 1950s uranium was discovered. In the 1960s and 1970s the population topped 2,000. The drop in the price of uranium in early 1980 lowered production of that commodity and led to a brief decrease in the population. However, despite the decline of uranium mining and plunging oil and gas prices, which contributed to an economic slump in George West in the 1980s, the population rose to 2,629 in 1982 and held steady at that figure for the decade. The school district suffered from a decrease in tax revenue as businesses declined from ninety in 1982 to sixty-six in 1990. The population in 1990 was 2,586, and in 2000 it was 2,524.