The Aransas River Starts with Three Bee County Creeks

The Aransas River begins where Olmos, Aransas, and Poesta creeks meet, two miles north of Skidmore. From that Bee County confluence, it runs southeast for forty miles. It forms part of the San Patricio-Refugio county line before crossing Aransas County and emptying into Copano Bay northwest of Rockport.

The river once appeared in a much larger boundary argument. During the Coahuila and Texas period, Juan N. Almonte wrote that geographers had drawn the line incorrectly. He argued that Texas's southwestern boundary should run from the mouth of the Aransas up to its source.

That proposal gives the quiet creek junction north of Skidmore an unexpected place in Texas history. The river begins there without a broad channel or a coastal view: three inland creeks meet, and the water starts its run to Copano Bay.