Kerrville enjoys not only a favorable and pleasant setting that has long attracted an affluent and international population, but also a diversity in culture, business, and institutions. In the 1990s the ethnic mix of the town included Anglo Americans from all parts of the United States, as well as Germans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Scots.qqv It also included smaller elements of Central European, Baltic, and Asian extraction. Partner-city agreements and other exchanges linked Kerrville with other municipalities in North America and Europe. There were more than fifty churches. Public and private schools, a college, several university extension programs, and an unusually large public library served Kerrville and the larger Hill Country area. Two museums preserved cowboy art and the history of the Schreiner family. The Kerrville music festivals (see KERRVILLE FOLK FESTIVAL), sports competitions, arts and crafts fairs, working ranches, wildlife, and exotic game preserves have been widely known in the state since the early 1900s and in the nation since the 1980s. Businesses in the early 1990s ranged from clinics, sanatoria, summer camps, convention centers, hotels, restaurants, and three hospitals, to an aircraft-manufacturing facility, a major silversmith, a regional bus company, an airport, various banks, radio and television stations, newspapers, retail stores, and services. The city also had a large number of artisans, painters, writers, and musicians. Tourism brought well over half a million visitors to the town annually in the 1980s and 1990s. The primary trade area included nearly 70,000 people by 1995. Economic development and environmental and cultural preservation were the main concerns of the town during these decades. Predominantly Republican, the town in the 1990s had a council-manager form of city governmentqv with six council members. An armory of the Texas National Guardqv was also located inside the city limits.
