Karnes City
| Karnes City, Texas | |
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| City | |
Welcome sign at Karnes City
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 Location of Karnes City, Texas |
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| Coordinates: 28°53′N 97°54′W / 28.883°N 97.900°WCoordinates: 28°53′N 97°54′W / 28.883°N 97.900°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Karnes |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.1 sq mi (5.5 km2) |
| • Land | 2.1 sq mi (5.5 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 430 ft (131 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 3,457 |
| • Density | 1,627.6/sq mi (628.4/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 78118 |
| Area code(s) | 830 |
| FIPS code | 48-38452 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1360493 |
Karnes City is a city in Karnes County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,042 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Karnes County. The town was named after Henry Karnes of the Texas Revolution. Karnes is some twenty-five miles south of Floresville on U.S. Highway 181.
In 1894, as a result of a special election, the county seat was moved from Helena to Karnes City. Colonel William G. Butler (1831–1912) blamed the town and its corrupt mayor for the death of his son, Emmett, who was killed on December 26, 1884, by a stray bullet from a bar fight. When the townspeople would not identify Emmett's killer, Butler reportedly shouted: "All right! For that I'll kill the town that killed my son!" Following through on his threat, Butler, a veteran of the American Civil War and a wealthy rancher, arranged for the since defunct San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to be built 7 mi (11 km) bypassing Helena. Then, in a bitterly contested election, the county seat was moved to Karnes City, and Helena faded away into a ghost town.
The popular character actor Jim Davis played the role of Colonel Butler in the 1969 episode "The Oldest Law" of the syndicated television series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Robert Taylor not long before Taylor's own death. Tom Lowell (born 1941) played Emmett Butler; Stacy Harris, the corrupt Mayor Ackerson, and Tyler McVey, Parson Blake.
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