Medina's Apple Story Started With Dwarf Orchards in the 1980s

Medina sits where State Highway 16 meets Farm Road 337, twelve miles northwest of Bandera. A sawmill was in the area by 1865, and the post office opened in 1880, long before apple signs became part of the local shorthand.

The apple turn came much later. Baxter Adams, Jr., started an experimental orchard of dwarf apple trees in 1980, and apples were ready for sale in 1984. In 1989, the Texas Department of Agriculture declared Medina the Apple Capital of Texas.

That makes the nickname more than a booster phrase. Medina's land had centered on livestock and hunting leases before Baxter Adams, Jr., planted dwarf apple trees in 1980. Apples reached the market in 1984, and by 1989 the Texas Department of Agriculture had given Medina a state-recognized name: the Apple Capital of Texas.