200px|right|thumb|Historic Pioneer Rest Cemetery in [[Menard, Texas|Menard has graves dating to the 19th century.]]
Menard County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,962. The county seat is Menard. The county was created in 1858 and later organized in 1871. It is named for Michel Branamour Menard, the founder of Galveston, Texas.
History
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Around 8000 BC, Native American inhabitants arrived. Later Native Americans included Comanche and Lipan Apache. In 1757, Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros founded Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, as a support for Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission, for the Apache Indians.
In the 1830s, James Bowie and Rezin P. Bowie scoured the San Saba valley seeking a silver mine that the Spanish had believed to be in the area. They were unsuccessful, but the legend of the Lost Bowie Mine, also known as the Lost San Saba Mine or the Los Almagres Mine, fed the imaginations of treasure-seekers for the next 150 years.
Camp San Saba was established in 1852 to protect settlers from Indian attacks. The state legislature formed Menard County from Bexar County in 1858. The county was named for Michel Branamour Menard, the founder of Galveston. Menardville, later known as Menard, became the county seat.
By 1870, the county population was 667: 295 were white, and 372 were black, possibly due to the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort McKavett. A gas well was redrilled in 1941, and produced about seven million cubic feet of gas.
Major highways
- 20px US 83
- 25px US 190
- 25px US 377
- 20px SH 29
Adjacent counties
- Concho County (north)
- McCulloch County (northeast)
- Mason County (east)
- Kimble County (south)
- Schleicher County (west)
- Sutton County (southwest)
- Tom Green County (northwest)