Karnes City, the seat of Karnes County, was founded during the Christmas season of 1890 when a partnership headed by Otto Buchel bought 1,000 acres from J. L. Calvert at $5 an acre near the county's geographic center along the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad right-of-way. The new town was first named Karnes in honor of Texas Ranger hero Henry W. Karnes (1812-1840), remembered as a small, mild-mannered man noted for cool courage in battle and for an incident in which Comanche women, seeing his red hair, tried to wash out what they thought was berry juice. When the first post office was established on April 1, 1891, City was added to the name. The town grew quickly, and within three years citizens petitioned for an election to move the county seat from Helena to Karnes City; voters approved the change by a two-to-one margin, and the move was made in January 1894. Since 1891, Karnes City has grown steadily, supporting seven newspapers, four banks, and many businesses, while six passenger trains a day passed through during the railroad boom, and the area's economy has rested on ranching, farming, uranium, oil, and gas.