On Farm to Market Road 81 south of County Road 302, on the left when traveling north.
Founded in 1852 on San Antonio River by Thomas Ruckman, a graduate of Princeton, and Lewis Owings, later first Governor of Arizona Territory. Town was named in honor of Owings' wife, Helen.
Situated on branch of famed Chihuahua Trail (running . . . — — Map (db m132367) HM
On Farm to Market Road 81 south of County Road 302, on the left when traveling north.
Example of religious toleration in frontier Texas. Site was used early as 1866 by Methodists, whose church was "free to any Christian denomination for...worship, (and) subject to use of...Helena School".
Trustees of that church were T. K. . . . — — Map (db m132368) HM
Near Farm to Market Road 81 south of County Road 302.
Soon after Karnes County was created and organized in 1854, a frame and clapboard courthouse was erected at this site in the center of Jefferson Square.
This rock structure was built in 1873 to replace the first courthouse and adjacent county . . . — — Map (db m132370) HM
On Farm to Market Road 81 at County Road 302, on the left when traveling north on Road 81.
After centuries of use by buffalo and Indians, this trail from San Antonio to the Texas coast gained importance when opened to colonial travel by the Alarcon Expedition in 1718.
Spanish conquistadores and priests, the Gutierrez-Magee . . . — — Map (db m132371) HM
On Farm to Market Road 81 south of County Road 302, on the right when traveling north.
Founding father of Karnes County, Ruckman was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1848 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and taught in South Carolina for a year. But the lure of Texas - then a . . . — — Map (db m132372) HM
