Biohazard Cleanup Near North Encinal Encinal, TX

Railroad officials named Encinal for the Spanish word for an oak grove, after the holm and holly oaks growing in this part of La Salle County.

Encinal was supposed to become the county seat of Encinal County, which the Texas legislature created on February 1, 1856, from the eastern part of Webb County — but the county was never organized and was finally dissolved on March 12, 1899.

The settlement moved to the International–Great Northern Railroad tracks in the early 1880s, got a post office in 1883 and its first school in 1886, and became a shipping point for sheep and cattle.

Encinal's population peaked at about 800 residents in 1937, and the 2020 census counted 540 people living in 181 households.

About 93.7 percent of Encinal's residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2020 census.

Encinal bakes under some of the fiercest heat in Texas — its all-time record high is 116 degrees Fahrenheit, set on June 17, 1998, and the town averages about 56 days a year at or above 100 degrees.

Encinal lies on Interstate 35 about 27 miles south of Cotulla, and Texas State Highway 44 also runs through town toward the Rio Grande.

Encinal students attend schools in the Cotulla Independent School District.

Country music star George Strait keeps an 8,000-plus-acre ranch near Encinal, and energy executive Rodney Lewis also ranches in the area.