Fulton Carries the County's Cattle-to-Fishing Story in One Small Town

Fulton is easy to pass through on State Highway 35, but the town name carries a lot of Aransas County history. It sits on Aransas Bay just north of Rockport and was founded in 1866, named for George Ware Fulton.

The Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company helped shape the place. Its ranching business pushed for a deepwater pass and rail connections so beef could move out of the Coastal Bend. Meat-packing plants worked in the area during the late 1860s cattle boom, before competition from Chicago and other changes thinned that business by the mid-1870s.

Fulton did not freeze in that opening chapter. By 1885 it had a post office, school, churches, a beef-canning plant, and even a bone fertilizer factory. Later came deep-sea fishing, tourism, and incorporation in the 1970s.

That mix still explains the feel of the town. Fulton is not a line of seafood signs along the bay. It is a place where ranch money, packing plants, boats, and visitors all left marks. The town reads small today, but its name still points back to a much bigger coastal business dream.