The Texas author and folklorist J. Frank Dobie was born in Live Oak County near George West in 1888.

Former State Senator Cyndi Taylor Krier, also the administrative judge of Bexar County, was reared near George West in the unincorporated community of Dinero.

Originally from Shannonville Tennessee, West began to build his town in 1913, after ranching from 1880 to 1912 in the area between Pleasanton and Corpus Christi.

West had made his fortune on cattle drives but knew that the future rested with the transport of the animals on a train.

Other ranchers tried to sell property at that time, and prices dropped to low levels.

[6] In 1918, West offered $75,000 to build a new courthouse if the county seat was moved from Oakville, which was not on a railroad route, and if voters approved the plan.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12 square miles (31 km2), all land.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,171 people, 716 households, and 466 families residing in the city.