Nueces County, Texas: Native Americans & History
Earliest signs of life in the county were estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. The earliest group were a culture named the Aransas. They were a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers, who had left the coastal region around 700–800 years ago, where the region remained uninhabited for about a century. The next group to migrate into the region were the Karankawa people, about 600 years ago, then being followed by other groups.
The area was disputed between Mexico and Texas, with Texas claiming the Rio Grande as the border and Mexico claiming the Nueces Strip as the border. The county was officially created on April 18, 1846, with Texas only gaining control over the county after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
The Indian tribes that lived in and raided the county were the Lipan Apache, Karankawa, Coahuiltecan, Kickapoo, and the Seminole. Relentless attacks from these tribes, along with its isolation and diseases, kept the counties population at a minimum in the counties beginning. The final recorded Indian raid in the county happened in April 1878, when Lipan Apache, Kickapoo, Seminole, Mexicans, and a white man briefly entered the county and onto ranches, before returning west to Laredo. Around this time, a band of Texas Rangers would clear out the outlaws that had embedded themselves into the Nueces Strip during the disputes between Texas and Mexico.
The county faced various trials and tribulations in its first few decades. It was only after the Civil War that the county began to see steady success, mainly due to Corpus Christi, which contributed value as a major shipping port. Another asset that contributed to the county's growth was a narrow-gauge railroad built in 1879 that went from San Diego to Laredo. As shipping became less consistent due to competition with railroading business, Corpus Christi shifted away from shipping to tourism.