Rancho Banquete

Bluntzer is at the junction of Farm roads 624 and 666, some twenty-four miles west of Corpus Christi in northwestern Nueces County. It was named for an early ranching family. Nicholas Bluntzer came to the area in 1860 and settled near an area formerly known as Santa Margarita Crossing, one of the principal stopping points on the San AntonioBrownsville stagecoach line. The Bluntzer school was opened in the 1870s on W. W. Wright's Rancho Seco. After the school building was inundated during the 1919 hurricane, the school was moved to a site, donated by Justina Bluntzer, on a nearby hill. The community reported a population of twenty-five from 1900 to 1950. By the 1970s Bluntzer was the only remaining common school in Nueces County. In 1971 the school was annexed to the Banquete Independent School District. In 2000 Bluntzer reported a population of 150.