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Prehistorically, the
area had many springs with drinkable water that supported wildlife
and nomadic hunters. Antonio de Espejo visited the area in 1583 and
crossed the Pecos River. John Pope surveyed the area in 1854 for a
railroad company, and returned in 1855 to start a camp in
northwestern Loving County and establish artesian wells in the area,
however the venture was unsuccessful and was abandoned in 1861. |
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From 1837 to 1874 the
area of Loving County was part of the Bexar land district. In 1874
it was separated from Bexar County as a part of Tom Green County.
Loving County is named for Oliver Loving, a cattle rancher and
pioneer of the cattle drive who together with Charles Goodnight
developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was mortally wounded by
Comanches while on a cattle drive in 1867 in the vicinity of the
county. |
Loving is the only county in Texas to be incorporated twice, first
in 1893 and then once more in 1931. Its initial organization was
effected by a canal company founded in Denver, Colorado, and appears
to have been based upon fraud and willful misrepresentations made by
the founders to state officials. [2] After a local landowner hired a
New York firm to investigate alleged improprieties in county
government, the company's organizers fled, taking with them all the
county records. The state legislature subsequently disorganized
Loving in 1897, attaching it to Reeves County.
Oil was discovered in 1921, leading to a population increase in
Loving County. By 1930 there were 195 residents, mostly living in
what would become the town of Mentone, which became the county seat
when Loving was reconstituted in 1931. By 1933, the population had
peaked at 600, only to enter a steady decline to the present day. |
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