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Reeves County is
situated in Southwest Texas, on
the line of the Texas and
Pacific Railroad. It was formed from a part of Pecos County in 1883, named in honor of George. R. Reeves,
and given county
government the following year. Its estimated population is 7,000; Pecos,
the county seat,
has about 2,000 and Toyah, 700. The county's population has doubled in the last eighteen months. In 2000, its population
was 13,137. The surface of the eastern portion is level; in the western portion the Davis Mountains are located.
There is a scattering growth of mesquite timber suitable for fire wood.
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The first people to inhabit Reeves County lived in the rock shelters and caves
around the edge of the Barrilla Hills and built permanent camps near Phantom Lake, San Solomon Spring, and Toyah
Creek. These prehistoric people left behind artifacts and pictographs as evidence of their presence. The Jumano
Indians irrigated crops of corn and peaches from San Solomon Spring, where Balmorhea State Recreation Area is now
located. Three Jumanos met the expedition of Antonio de Espejo
near Toyah Lake in 1583, and guided explorers to La Junta by a better
route. Settlers of Mexican descent farmed in the county's Madera Valley from early times. In 1849 John S. Ford traveled along Toyah Creek and noted
the productive land upon which the Mescalero Indians cultivated corn. Farmers of Mexican descent who irrigated
from San Solomon Spring in the last half of the nineteenth century found a lucrative market for grains, vegetables,
and beef at Fort Davis. The first Anglo farmers arrived in Toyah Valley in 1871, when George B. and Robert E. Lyle
began irrigating crops from Toyah Creek. Open range ranching first attracted white settlers to the Davis Mountains
in 1875. |
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