Caldwell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,883, and was estimated to be 55,150 in 2025. The county was founded on March 6, 1848 and named after Mathew Caldwell, a ranger captain who fought in the Battle of Plum Creek against the Comanches and against Santa Anna's armies during the Texas Revolution. Caldwell was also a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Caldwell County is part of the metropolitan area.
History
Around 8000 BC, Paleo-Indians hunter-gatherers inhabited the area, and later Tonkawa, Karankawa and Comanche peoples became the first identified inhabitants. Caldwell County, of Green DeWitt's petition for a land grant to establish a colony in Texas, was approved by the Mexican government in 1825.
In 1839, Edmund Bellinger became the first settler of Prairie Lea, the county's oldest town. Sam Houston named the town for his future wife Margaret Lea Houston. The legislature formed Caldwell County from Bastrop and Gonzales counties in March 1845. Lockhart was named as the county seat.
By 1860, the county population was 2,871, with 1,610 slaves. The next year, the county voted 434–188 in favor of secession from the Union. Several hundred men from Caldwell County served in the Confederate States Army. The town of Luling was established in 1874, close to an earlier farming settlement named Atlanta . John and James Merriwether and Leonidas Hardeman built a gristmill and a sawmill, later known as Zedler's Mills.
The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas completed its track between Lockhart and San Marcos in 1887.
On August 9, 1922, Edgar B. Davis discovered the Luling Oilfield. The Luling Foundation was established in 1927 by Davis to teach diversity in agriculture and improve the lives of farm and ranch families.
The Lockhart State Park opened to the public in 1948. In 1953, Luling established its annual Watermelon Thump celebration.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.35%) is water. It is the 235th largest county in Texas by total area.
Major highways
- 20px Interstate 10
- 20px U.S. Highway 90
- 25px U.S. Highway 183
- 20px State Highway 21
- 20px State Highway 80
- 20px State Highway 130
- 20px State Highway 142
Adjacent counties
- Travis County (northeast)
- Bastrop County (north)
- Fayette County (southeast)
- Gonzales County (southwest)
- Guadalupe County (south)
- Hays County (west)