Freer is located in
Duval County. Freer is at the intersection of US 59 and Hwys 16, 44, and 339, twenty-four miles northwest of San Diego and twenty-three miles northwest of Benavides in northwestern
Duval County.
The single most important event in the history of Freer occurred in 1928. Three wildcatters drilling on the W.P. Norton property southwest of town struck one of the nation's largest oil reserves.
Beginning in the mid-1950s, a number of major petrochemical corporations have had plants in Freer. In 1990 Valero Hydrocarbons was still operating a small plant at Freer producing butane, propane, and natural gas.
From 2,400 in the 1930s, the estimated population of Freer had declined to 2,280 by the mid-1950s, but in the early 1960s it began a gradual increase that continued into the late 1980s, when the town had 3,735 residents and 103 businesses. In 1990 Freer reported 3,271 residents.