Liberty County

Liberty County lies about halfway between Houston and Beaumont and is bisected by the Trinity River. It extends from the edge of the Big Thicket to the north to coastal prairies in the south. Evidence indicates humans have lived in the area for at least 3000 years. It was home to a few Spanish missions and aborted French settlements, such as Champ d’Asile, before Anglo settlement began in earnest with the empresario grants to Joseph B.Vehlein. Liberty, the county seat, was incorporated in 1837. Liberty County has been largely agricultural, with more than half the county used as farm or ranch land well into the 1980s. It remains sparsely populated, with a total county population under 100,000 as of the 2020 census.