Kingsland

Kingsland is at the juncture of the Llano and Colorado rivers, fifteen miles southeast of Llano in east central Llano County. It was originally called Kingsville, for Martin D. King, who with J. M. Trussell had purchased the land on which it is located in 1877. The town was the site of a cotton gin and a small trading center in the 1880s. Activity increased with the extension of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad to Llano through Kingsville in 1892. By 1901 the community was known as Kingsland and had become the location of a growing number of businesses, including the Antlers Hotel, built by railroad interests. Kingsland had a reported population of 750 in 1907 but suffered a temporary decline, aggravated by a fire in 1922; in 1925 the population was reported as 150. The opportunities afforded by the Highland Lakes for retirement and recreational businesses had revived Kingsland by the mid-1960s as an regional commercial center, and in 1986 it had numerous businesses, including a national bank, and a population of 1,500. In 1990 the population was 2,725. The population grew to 4,584 in 2000.