The Mico Volunteer Fire Department was established in 1963 to provide fire protection services to the community of Mico, Texas and surrounding area (approximately 70 square miles within Medina County). In 2016, Medina County Emergency Services Division (ESD) #1 signed a contract to provide Emergency Medical Services to the Mico area, putting an EMS crew at the Mico Volunteer Fire Department Station 24/7. This has substantially improved response time to emergencies in the area. We are funded by the Emergency Services District #1, Medina County, and generous donations from the community we serve. We are a 501(C)(3) tax status organization.
Our main fire station is located in the town of Mico near the Medina Lake dam. The address is: 7121 CR 271, P.O. Mico, TX 78056. We have two substations, Devil’s Kitchen and Rocky Creek, which house a brush truck and a tanker truck to service the southwestern areas of our coverage.
We sponsor several community events annually to increase public awareness of fire safety. The main fire station is sometimes used as a public ‘town hall’ for meetings of interest to the entire community. We have one main fund raiser per year, the Annual BBQ Dinner and Auction every spring, on Mother’s Day weekend in May.
Our Staff consists of 14 radio-equipped volunteer firefighters who respond to dispatches from the Medina County Sheriffs Office in Hondo, Texas. These firefighters respond to calls in our area as well as mutual aid calls to the surrounding communities.
Medina Lake was constructed between 1911-1912 as an irrigation reservoir by the Medina Irrigation Company in what became Mico, Texas. An extensive canal system delivers water to 34,000 acres of blackland prairie farmlands below the Balcones escarpment around Castroville. At the time it was constructed, it was the biggest irrigation project west of the Mississippi. At spillway capacity, Medina Lake covers about 5,575 acres, has a length of 18 miles, a maximum width of three miles, and 110 miles of shoreline. In addition to the main dam, there is a smaller dam about four miles downstream that creates Diversion Lake, from which discharges are made to the canal system.
~Excerpted from: http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/
In 1910, world famous engineer Dr. Fred Stark Pearson persuaded British investors to finance construction of the Medina dam and canal system. A crew of 1,500 men worked around the clock to mix 292,000 cubic yards of concrete and form it into a waterproof wall 164 feet high, 128 feet wide at the base, 25 feet wide at the top, and 1,580 feet long. Laborers received $2 a day, which were good wages for those days. Most were Mexican nationals who had prior experience building hydroelectric dams with Pearson in Mexico, and most of them brought their families. At least 70 people were killed by accidents and disease during the year of construction.
MICO, TEXAS
Mico is a fishing resort on Farm Road 271 just east of the main dam at Medina Lake in northeastern Medina County. The name Mico comes from the acronym for the Medina Irrigation COmpany. The community’s post office was established as Mico in 1911, changed its name to Medina Lake in 1916, and was renamed Mico in 1923. It closed permanently in 1967, and local mail was routed through Castroville.
Mico was a terminus for freight shipped on the Southern Pacific to Dunlay for the construction of Medina Dam in 1912. An elementary school was established in 1922 or 1923 as the Mico and Cliff District. It was consolidated with the Castroville School District. In 1931 Mico had an estimated ten businesses and a population of 200, and in 1965 it had four businesses and a population of 350. By 1975 its population was ninety-eight, and the town reported only one business.
Mico in 1987 comprised numerous dwellings by Medina Lake on Farm Road 271 near its intersection with Farm Road 1283. In late 1989 local general stores, boat marinas, and pool halls continued to cater to lake enthusiasts, and in 2000 the community’s population was still estimated at ninety-eight.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Castro Colonies Heritage Association, The History of Medina County, Texas (Dallas: National Share Graphics, 1983). John J. Germann and Myron Janzen, Texas Post Offices by County (1986).