Dilley is a small town of about 3,300 people in Frio County, South Texas, set along Interstate 35 in the corridor between San Antonio and Laredo. San Antonio lies more than 70 miles to the north, Laredo about 84 miles to the south, and the Frio County seat of Pearsall sits 16 miles up the highway. The community took shape in the early 1880s with the arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad and was incorporated in 1912, named for George M. Dilley, a railroad official who helped establish the townsite. Agriculture built the town's early economy. For much of its history Dilley was a commercial shipping point for watermelons, peanuts, and cattle, and it was long known as a watermelon center—a heritage marked today by a roadside watermelon monument in town. Over time the economy diversified, and oil and gas production from the surrounding South Texas fields now plays a leading role, drawing workers and service businesses to the area. Two large institutions also anchor local employment: the Dolph Briscoe Unit, a Texas state prison located near town, and a federal immigration processing facility operated under contract since 2014. Together with ranching and the oil fields, they give Dilley an economy built on agriculture, energy, and public facilities rather than on a single industry. The surrounding countryside remains a mix of ranchland and farm fields, where cattle operations and hunting leases share the landscape with the oil patch. Education is provided by the Dilley Independent School District, which operates three schools for a few hundred students. The town's small scale, its position on a major interstate, and its mix of long-time families and newer residents give it the straightforward, working character of a South Texas crossroads community, with San Antonio's urban services and airport within a little over an hour's drive to the north.