The City of Ames is located at the junction of Farm Road 160 and U.S. Highway 90, forty-two (42) miles west of Beaumont in south central Liberty County. Once known as Rachal Station after pioneer Darius Ciriaque Rachal, Ames was renamed for a section foreman on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. The community had a flag station during the Civil War and a full station by 1890. A local Catholic rectory was built in 1915. Ames had a population of twenty-five in 1930. The county set up a new voting box there in 1945. In 1972 Ames voters incorporated their town by a margin of 69 to 8. During the mid-1970s the town's population was estimated at 350, and by 1980 Ames had 1,155 residents and an array of businesses.