| Presidio County, Texas | |
| Map | |
 Location in the state of Texas |
|
 Texas's location in the U.S. |
|
| Statistics | |
| Founded | 1875 |
|---|---|
| Seat | Marfa |
| Area - Total - Land - Water |
3,856 sq mi (9,987 km²) 3,855 sq mi (9,984 km²) 1 sq mi (3 km²), 0.02% |
| Population - (2000) - Density |
7,304 3/sq mi (1/km²) |
| Website: www.co.presidio.tx.us | |
Presidio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 7,304. Its seat is Marfa[1]. Presidio County (K-5 in Texas topological index of counties) is in the Trans-Pecos region of southwest Texas and is named for the ancient border settlement of Presidio del Norte.
Contents |
Geography
Presidio County is triangular in shape and is bounded on the east by Brewster County, on the north by Jeff Davis County, and on the south and west for 135 miles by the Rio Grande and Mexico. Marfa, the county seat, is 190 miles southeast of El Paso and 150 miles southwest of Odessa. The center of the county lies at 30°30' north latitude and 104°15' west longitude. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,856 square miles (9,988 km²), of which, 3,855 square miles (9,986 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.02%) is water.
Geographically, Presidio County comprises 3,857 square miles of contrasting topography, geology, and vegetation. In the north and west clay and sandy loams cover the rolling plains known as the Marfa Plateau and the Highland Country, providing good ranges of grama grasses for the widely acclaimed Highland Herefords. In the central, far western, and southeastern areas of the county some of the highest mountain ranges in Texas are found. These peaks are formed of volcanic rock and covered with loose surface rubble. They support desert shrubs and cacti and dominate a landscape of rugged canyons and numerous springs. The spring-fed Capote Falls, with a drop of 175 feet the highest in Texas, is located in western Presidio County. In the southern and western parts of the county the volcanic cliffs of the Candelaria Rimrock (also called the Sierra Vieja) rise perpendicular and run parallel to the river, separating the highland prairies from the desert floor hundreds of feet below them. The gravel pediment, which allows only the growth of desert shrubs and cacti, extends from the Rimrock to the flood plain of the river. Along the river irrigation allows the farming of vegetables, grains, and cottons. There are no permanent streams in the county, although many dry arroyos become raging torrents during heavy rainfalls. Major ones are Alamito Creek, Cibolo Creek, Capote Creek, and Pinto Canyon. San Esteban Dam was built across Alamito Creek and on the site of a historic spring-fed tinaja in 1911 as an irrigation and land promotion project. The prairies, mountains, desert, and river give Presidio County an unusual beauty. Altitudes in the county vary from 2,518 to 7,728 feet above sea level. Temperatures, moderated by the mountains, vary from 33°F in January to 100°F in July. Average rainfall is only twelve inches per year, but it comes mainly in June, July, and August. The growing season extends for 238 days. Natural resources under production in 1982 were perlite, crushed rhyolite, sand, and gravel. Silver mining contributed greatly to the economy of the county from the 1880s to the 1940s. Presidio County has no oil or gas production.
Major highways
Adjacent counties and municipios
Presidio' counties unusual shape has it facing more of Mexico than of the United States. The county is bounded on the east by Brewster County, on the north by Jeff Davis County, and on the south and west for 135 miles by the Rio Grande and Mexico along which it faces on its south side the Manuel Benavides and Ojinaga Districts of the state of Chihuaha, Mexico and on its southwestern side the municipality of Guadalupe of the State of Chihuaha, Mexico.
- Jeff Davis County (north)
- Brewster County (east)
- Manuel Benavides, Chihuahua, Mexico (south)
- Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico (south)
- Guadalupe, Chihuahua, Mexico (southwest)
Demographics
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 7,304 people, 2,530 households, and 1,864 families residing in the county. The population density was 2 people per square mile (1/km²). There were 3,299 housing units at an average density of 1 per square mile (0/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 84.95% White, 0.27% Black or African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 13.47% from other races, and 0.93% from two or more races. 84.36% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 2,530 households out of which 40.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.50% were married couples living together, 13.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.30% were non-families. 24.20% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.43.
In the county, the population was spread out with 32.70% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 24.90% from 25 to 44, 20.20% from 45 to 64, and 13.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 94.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.00 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $19,860, and the median income for a family was $22,314. Males had a median income of $23,218 versus $16,208 for females. The per capita income for the county was $9,558. About 32.50% of families and 36.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.40% of those under age 18 and 44.10% of those age 65 or over. The county's per-capita income makes it one of the poorest counties in the United States.
Cities and towns
CDPs
Other unincorporated areas
Education
Marfa Independent School District serves eastern Presidio County while Presidio Independent School District serves western Presidio County
Presidential elections
The county is reliably Democratic. In the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Barack Obama received 71.3% of the county's vote.[3]
The county has at times given higher than average support for third party or independent candidates. In 1984 it gave Lyndon LaRouche 3.84%, which might be the highest percentage he received in the nation in that election.[4]
History
The area around the present town of Presidio on the Rio Grande, known as La Junta de los Ríos, is believed to be the oldest continuously cultivated farmland in Texas. About 1500 B.C. Indian tribal nations of the area were principally corn farmers of the Cochise culture who had settled there to use the abundant water, fertile farmland, and bountiful game. Long before the Spaniards appeared in La Junta the natives formed two main tribes, the Julimes and the Jumanos who had earlier replaced the long-time indigenous Anazazi and Magillon tribes. The first Europeans to find the area were probably the Spaniards of the lost expedition of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in their epic quest across the South-Eastern United States. They are estimated to have crossed on their trek across Texas to the area of La Junta in December 1535. They found the Indians living in pueblos and raising large crops of corn, beans, squash. Both the Julimes and Jumanos later succumbed to Spanish influence, culture and myscegination. The Julimes who Cabeza de Vaca described as an almost magical and mythical people vanished in an attempt to remain aloof from the Spaniards. The Jumanos lost their identity and self-sufficiency by becoming good subjects of the Spanish crown and later myscegenated with Spanish and Mezitzo settlers.
After Cabeza de Vaca's visit a number of Spanish expeditions came to present Presidio County, the first in 1581. The entrada of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and Father Nicolás López in 1683-84 established seven missions at seven pueblos along the river in the La Junta area. In 1683 Father López celebrated the first Christmas Mass ever observed in Texas at La Junta. Although Spaniards explored the area of present Presidio County, they established no settlements there because of the growing strength of the warlike Apache and Comanche Indians. Simultaneously, these later tribes also destroyed or forcibly assimilated the remaining Indian tribal nations of the Tri-Pecos area thereby establishing large empires based on raiding and enslavement. As a result, the Spanish and Mexican governments found it impossible to control the Apache and Comanche Indians using their methods and settlers. As a result, Indian depredations continued to make the area uninhabitable until the first white settlement in the area of present Presidio County was established on Cibolo Creek three miles north of the site of Presidio in January 1832 by the family of Lt. Col. José Ygnacio Ronquillo, his soldiers, and laborers. Located on the Ronquillo Land Grant and called El Cíbolo, the settlement was abandoned in November 1832 when the soldiers were called away to fight Indians.
Amid Indian danger, the Mexican government saw the opportunity for trade and development with the growing and industrious American population. It made extensive attempts using American immigrant settlers whose fearlessness and use of quick violent reprisals against the Indians made them ideal at opening a trade route across the Tejas province. By 1839 a trade route called the Chihuahua Trail had been established from Chihuahua City, Mexico, across the future Presidio County to the Red River and on to Missouri. The area proved a magnet for American and European settlers from the United States and Mexican and European settlers from Mexico.
With the annexation of Texas to the Union in 1846, Americans recognized the economic potential of the Presidio area along the Rio Grande. By 1848 Ben Leaton built Fort Leaton on the river as his home, trading post, and private bastion. Milton Faver was the first American to move away from the safety of the river, becoming the first large-scale rancher in the area of present Presidio County. He built two private forts-Fort Cibolo and Fort Cienega-to protect his family, workers, and livestock from Indian raids. Several other Americans irrigated crops and grazed herds on the Rio Grande in the 1850s and 1860s.
Although the United States census of 1850 reported no population for Presidio County, a sufficient number lived there to establish the county from Bexar Land District on January 3, 1850. Fort Leaton was the as the county seat. In 1854 the army built Fort Davis in northern Presidio County to protect travelers and settlers. By 1860 Indian attacks declined, and the census of that year recorded 574 whites, two free blacks, and four slaves. As in most frontier areas men outnumbered women 436 to 144. With the outbreak of the Civil War Fort Davis closed, and armed with large amounts of weapons from Mexico, Indian attacks resumed with a vengeance. Scores of the Texas men, women, and children were killed and many of the remainder forced out of the area. With the cessation of hostilities between North and South, the fort was reopened in 1867, and the population of the county increased threefold by 1870, when 1,636 people were listed as residents, 494 of them were women and 772 were Mexican emigrants. The black population increased to 489 when buffalo soldiers were stationed at Fort Davis. Presidio County was organized in 1875 as the largest county in the United States, with 12,000 square miles. Fort Davis was named the county seat.
The 1880s brought Presidio County a larger population and improvements in the economy and in transportation. The census of 1880 reported 2,873 inhabitants, a total increase of 1,237 and 823 more Mexican immigrants than in 1870. John W. Spencer, a local rancher and trader, found a silver deposit in the Chinati Mountains in 1880 that resulted in the opening of Presidio Mine and the beginning of the company town of Shafter. From 1883 until 1942 the mine produced over 32.6 million ounces of silver, employed from 300 to 400 workers, and paid the largest tax assessments in the county (see SHAFTER MINING DISTRICT). Also in 1880 the twenty-eight small grain farms of the county were valued at just over $47,000, but its nearly $54,000 worth of livestock proved more important to its economy. The railroad reached Presidio County in 1882 when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway laid tracks through its northeastern corner. With the railroad to move livestock and the Indian threat over, a new generation of cattlemen came into the county and started large ranches in 1884 and 1885. W. F. Mitchell built the first barbed wire fence in the county at Antelope Springs in 1888. The widespread use of barbed wire resulted in the refinement of cattle breeds, improvement of ranges, and innovative use of water supplies. Windmills, water wells, and earthen tanks were introduced on Presidio County ranches in the late 1880s.
The first sighting of the phenomenal Marfa Lights was recorded in 1883 when Robert Reed Ellison came through Paisano Pass and saw the mysterious lights. On any clear night they are still visible between Marfa and Paisano Pass. The lights at times appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. The source of the lights and the reason for their movements have not been explained.
The boundaries and seat of Presidio County were changed in the 1880s. Marfa was established in 1883, and the county seat was moved there from Fort Davis in 1885. Two years later Fort Davis became the seat of Jeff Davis County, which was established from Presidio County lands. That same year Brewster, Buchel, and Foley counties were also carved from Presidio, reducing the county to its present size as the fourth largest in the state. These changes were reflected in the census of 1890, when the population of Presidio County dropped to 1,698. Only twenty-six blacks remained in the county after the buffalo soldiers of Fort Davis were lost to Jeff Davis County. The census of the reduced county also showed only 912 Mexican immigrants. By 1890 the number of Presidio County farms grew to forty and were valued at $103,000. Farms produced hay, vegetables, and peaches, as well as grains. Although the number of farms, the acreage under cultivation, and the volume of production continued to increase steadily through the 1910 census, the real change in Presidio County agriculture came after 1914 when farmers began growing cotton. With the completion that year of Elephant Butte Dam on the Rio Grande a large and reliable irrigation source was available for the new crop. In 1919 four bales of cotton were grown on twelve acres of land, but in 1929 production climbed to over 3,800 bales on 6,587 acres. By 1939 Presidio County had 1,024 cotton farms that produced nearly 7,000 bales on more than 18,500 acres of land. That same year the now famous Presidio County cantaloupes were grown on twenty acres of land. Like farming, Presidio County ranching changed drastically with the new century. Milton Faver and other early ranchers raised both cattle and sheep from the 1850s through the 1880s, an unusual operation for that day. The 1880 census reported a far larger number of sheep than cattle in Presidio County, 9,030 sheep to 2,496 cattle. The 1890 census counted 3,160 cattle, but gave no number for sheep. By the 1900 census cattle dominated the range with over 41,500, while the number of sheep had declined to 236. Cattle increased to nearly 49,000 by 1910, and sheep neared extinction with 109. By 1920 cattle declined to just over 37,500, and sheep increased to 5,312. The trend continued in 1930 with cattle at over 33,500 and sheep above 16,000. The 1940 census indicated a more even distribution of the livestock and substantial gains for both cattle, at nearly 63,000, and sheep at less than 41,000. The value of Presidio County livestock continued to increase from $2.6 million at the end of the 1950s to $15.3 million in 1982.
As long as the small population of Presidio County lived in scattered isolation, church attendance was impracticable. But with the clustering of the population around Fort Davis, Marfa, and Shafter in the 1880s, the need for churches was evident. Although Catholic missions were established in southern Presidio County in the seventeenth century, no priest was permanently assigned to the county until 1875, when Dan Murphy donated land for a church and school in Fort Davis. Father Joseph Hoban came to the church at Fort Davis, but he also said Mass at the Faver ranch, in John Davis's chapel at Alamito, and at Presidio. While the early settlers at Fort Davis and around Presidio were Catholic, the new settlers around Marfa in the 1880s were mostly Protestant. A Protestant church building was erected in Marfa in 1886. Although the building was used by missionaries of various denominations and by a union Sunday School, it was called a Methodist church because the Methodists paid part of the construction costs. In 1888 William B. Bloys, founder of Bloys Camp Meeting at Skillman's Grove, organized a Presbyterian church in Fort Davis. In 1895 St. Mary's Catholic Church was built in Marfa, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church was organized there in 1896. The First Christian Church was founded in Marfa in 1897, and the Baptists organized a church in 1902. Bloys also organized a church in Shafter in 1903 that joined with the Marfa Presbyterian Church at its founding in 1910. In 1982 Presidio County had sixteen churches with 4,047 members. Like churches, schools were needed by the 1880s.
Since neither the Spanish nor the Mexicans had permanent settlements in the area of present Presidio County, no schools were organized under their governments. The early American settlers in the southern edge of the county sent their children to Austin and San Antonio for schooling. The first schools in the county were established at Fort Davis. The army operated a school for soldier's children with a noncommissioned officer as the teacher after 1867. Father Hoban's school opened there in 1875, and the first public school of the county was organized at Fort Davis in 1883. Between 1885 and 1902 public schools were built at Marfa, Polvo, Presidio, Shafter, Ruidosa, and Candelaria. By 1930 the county had five districts-Marfa, Shafter, Presidio, Porvenir, and Ochoa. In 1982 the county maintained two school districts with four elementary, one middle, and two high schools and a daily average attendance of 1,163. In 1983, 85 percent of the students were Hispanic and 15 percent were white.
Along with most counties in the Rio Grande Valley and Tri-Pecos area, the population of Presidio County continued to increase with the census in the decades following 1890. This increase reflected the impact of various competing interests on the area. American and Texas interests wished continuing supporting the growth of white farmers and settlers in the area. Opposing them were the interests of Mexican grandees and later revolutionaries who wished to stem or reverse the impact of Americanization in the area. During this period, persons of Mexican descent born in area were generally not recorded as American but were classed as Mexican natives. In the census of 1900 the population increased to 3,673. Included in that number were 1,463 Mexicans, fifty-three blacks, and twenty-eight immigrants of the British Isles who lived at the Presidio Mine making the population approximately, 54% American and European, 7 % black, and 39% Hispanic. By 1910 the population reached 5,218, with most of the increase coming from large numbers of Texan, Midwestern, and Southern farmers, ranchers, and sheepherders who moved into the Rio Grande valley during the period giving Presidio County a large majority of whites. Then, in 1920, the census reported the largest population ever recorded for the county, a total of 12,202. Included in this were 4,524 Mexican natives which represented a substantial jump in the size of the Hispanic population. However, the largest increase was in the white population the vast majority of which was related to military servicemen. Both increases were intimantly related to the civil war in Mexico.
The growth of Presidio County's population in the 1910s reflected the impact of the Mexican Revolution on border life. Raids, battles, and assassination throughout Mexico had spread during the Revolution into northern Mexico and substantially disrupted communities in the area. Refugees migrated to the county from Chihuahua and with them also came large numbers of competing belligerents within the Revolution. As the fighting moved into northern Mexico and raids started mounting into the US itself, the United States Army established several posts in the county to watch for border incursions. Then in 1915 a general uprising of Mexicans in the border counties of the United States was sparked leaving nearly 500 white, men, and children dead in 48 hours in Presidio alone and in turn, leaving a vast generational mark of racial hatred between Texans and Mexicans.
The Governor and local Sheriffs quickly formed paramilitary forces of Texas Rangers and Posses. Reprisals were mounted by the Texans and full scale attacks between Texans and Mexicans, and between Mexican factions and one another became commonplace throughout the countryside and the streets of the towns. As a result, martial law was declared and large numbers of US army soldiers were placed in the area. In Presidio County, Marfa became the headquarters for the Big Bend Military District, and in 1917 the Army established Camp Marfa, later called Fort D. A. Russell, at Marfa to protect the border. Cavalry posts were established at Shafter, Candelaria, Redford, Presidio, Indio, Ruidosa, and Camp Holland. Despite these moves, raids by Mexican bandits and paramilitary forces continued, and in turn invited fierce and sometimes excessive retaliation by the United States military and by the Texas Rangers. Incidents like the Brite Ranch Raid, the Neville Ranch Raid, and the Porvenir Massacre spread insecurity and many white farmers and townsmen left the area.
By 1922, the crisis in Mexico and throughout the Presidio County ebbed and over two thousand Mexicans returned to Mexico. However, the turmoil of the conflict had done its job of stemming the delicate growth of American settlement. Farming numbers and the over all white population was frozen and just before it began to grow again, the early signs of American economic crisis hit as the farming depression hit Presidio County early. Large numbers of small farms went under and were bought up by larger concerns. In turn, to keep there business profitable, the larger owners began the policy which was to feature first Texas borer counties and then the entire country, when they began importing cheap Mexican labor to replace the lost American farmers and their families.
When the County entered the 1930s the people faced a drought and a steep population decline falling below an estimated 8,000 people. Nonetheless, financially, the county was not greatly affected by the Great Depression until the summer of 1932. Although low silver prices closed Presidio Mine at Shafter with a loss of 300 jobs in 1930, the two banks in Marfa remained stable. The county reported eight manufacturing establishments with twenty-seven employees, a payroll of nearly $22,000, and products valued at slightly under $200,000. Throughout 1930 and 1931 Marfa continued construction of a new hotel, a clinic, and several shops. In 1930 the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway of Texas reached Presidio and built a bridge across the Rio Grande there to provide rail connections into Mexico. By the summer of 1932 the drought, unemployment, and closing of Fort Russell left the economy of the county fully depressed and the population had fallen to .
Economic recovery did not began again until 1936, when some new businesses opened. Postal receipts increased 32 percent over 1930, and Fort Russell and Presidio Mine reopened. By 1940 the population of the county rose slightly to 10,925, and five manufacturing businesses employed nineteen workers with a payroll of $12,000, producing products worth more than $160,000. During World War II Presidio County enjoyed economic prosperity as the home for two military installations-Fort Russell and Marfa Army Air Field. However, in terms of real value, the economy remained far below what it had been prior to the Mexican uprising. Demographically, although whites remained the majority of the population, most of this was because of military service, whilst the real economic production of that demographic sector remained stagnant. This was reflected in the post-war period as after the war Presidio County's population went into a thirty-year decline, falling to 7,354 in 1950, 5,460 in 1960 and 4,842 in 1970.
By 1970, the white population had been an ever decreasing minority for the last 20 years. This was further exacerbated when the 1980 census showed an increase in population to 5,188 due almost entirely to Mexican immigration and birth-rate. In 1920, Presidio County had over 12,000 people, of whom 65% were white. This group remained the majority of the population in later years despite economic losses because of the military posts. Nonetheless, with the batterings of the Mexican uprising, the Farm Crisis of the 1920’s, the Great Depression, and military demobilization in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, by 1982 Presidio County’s population had crashed to 5,500. With 77 percent of that number listed as Hispanic in origin, the county ranked seventeenth highest among all United States counties with Hispanic populations and one of the poorest. Additionally, in contrast to 1920, when most of the population were white independent farmers and ranchers, by 1980, the majority of the population no longer was rural and those who remained were almost entirely poverty stricken Hispanic tenant farmers, laborers, and some few poor white small farmers.
In turn, this demographic change also effected education. The educational level of the population in 1920 showed that fully 20% of the population had completed high-school. For a primarily rural population, this was not unusual in comparison with the rest of the US population, especially in the West and South during that period. However, whilst the remainder of the country saw its rural education rates increase exponentially in the years following, Presidio county registered actual declines. This was almost entirely due to the change in the demographic population as the younger age brackets became increasingly composed of illiterate Spanish speaking migrants and children of migrants. With military demobilization and white flight from the farming and then the small towns, by 1950, the percentage of the county who graduated from High School had fallen to 10.7 percent.
For the next thirty years, increasing amounts of the educational budget went toward teaching illiterate Spanish speaking children into learning English. The costs were prohibitively high for the county whose revenues continued to shrink as production from its American paying population stagnated and then fell and the non-tax paying and increasingly government services dependent Mexican population increased each year. As a result, the county became increasingly dependent on the Texas central state government. Despite the vast amounts of its budget spent toward education, while the percentage of those who had completed high school, increased to 30 percent by 1980, the county still lagged substantially behind the median rural of the country which registered rates at 85%.
Again, this failure was entirely due to the changed demographic circumstances of the county as poor but independent white farmers continued to be forced off the land by economic and social pressure and were replaced by illiterate Spanish speaking Hispanics. Nonetheless, the remaining white population with its hand firmly in control of county government made strenuous efforts at educating its Hispanic population. Although the increase in the size of the overall population of the county who had completed high school was considered a success in 1980, new and larger numbers of Mexican school aged children increased the surge on educational resources. By 2000, as a result of this immigration and despite the large amounts of money spent on education, the number of school aged children capable of reading, writing, and speaking English and conducting basic mathematics, history, and science in English had fallen to 20 percent.
Despite their decreasing size of the population, the remaining white population began emulating their Mexican grandee counterparts across the border and through patronage, wealth, and power remained in control of the county government into the 1980’s. However, because of the effects of affirmative action, civil rights, and federal and state oversight, transparent democratic government had made minority control of the county government increasingly difficult for the white population. By 2000, the white population had decreased to 17.5 percent of the population and had lost its grasp on the Democratic Party machinery. Nonetheless, despite this demographic change, politically, speaking, the County has remained a Democratic stronghold. In the 1982 primary the voters of Presidio County went 100 percent for the Democratic party. The people voted for a Republican president only five times between 1872 and 1992-Grant in 1872, McKinley in 1900, Roosevelt in 1904, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, and Nixon in 1972.
Although Presidio County in the early 20th century had a number of manufacturing and processing concerns, all had disappeared by the 1950’s. By 1982, the economy of the county was based primarily on agriculture with 83 percent of the land in farms and ranches with most of them in the hands of a few large land holding white farmers and ranchers whilst the remaining farming population consisting of Mexican tenant farmers, laborers, and an ever decreasing number of smaller white independent family farms. Sixty-eight percent of agricultural receipts were from cattle, sheep, wool, angora goats, and mohair. Primary crops under cultivation were wheat, hay, and sorghum. Vegetables grown were onions, cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelons. The vast majority of these receipts were again in the hands of the large landholders whilst the remainder were divided by the large number of small tenent farmers and poverty stricken subsistence family farms.
With the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs and the disappearance of the profitable small family farms, the town economies of the County began a long depression. Although the period between 1950 to 1970 saw the town economies for a time stave off collapse due to the influx of small farmers and ranchers who had abandoned their earlier businesses for town life and retirement, the productive economy which the retailers depended upon had ended. The number of retail businesses in the county in 1984 was 117, with a sales receipts increase of 17 percent over the previous period. In 1983 number of commercial banks in the county had fallen to just two in the town of Marfa. By the end of the 1980’s the collapse of the small farming industry was complete and Presidio County remained sparsely populated with 70% of its 6,637 inhabitants concentrated in its two towns, and with 81.6 percent of Hispanic descent. Most of the towns had been abandoned and the remaining communities included Marfa with 2,424 and Presidio 3,072. As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 7,304 people, 2,530 households, and 1,864 families residing in the county of which 17.5 percent was white and the remaining almost completely Hispanic. Although the population overall measured an increase, most of it was in the towns as Mexicans began abandoning the rural areas as well. As result of the population move from the rural farming areas to the two principal towns, the median population density was 2 people per square mile. Lastly, the median income for a household in the county was $19,860, and the median income for a family was $22,314. Males had a median income of $23,218 versus $16,208 for females. The per capita income for the county was $9,558. About 32.50% of families and 36.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.40% of those under age 18 and 44.10% of those age 65.
By the end of the 20th century, Presidio County had experienced nearly fifty years of consecutive economic declines which had been checked by periodic stabilizing periods caused by the centralization of capital in more economically productive farming or consumption spending by retirees. Currently, the County is poverty stricken with the median income for a household at 19,860 and the median income for a family at 22,314, making the median of all households and families in the household at the poverty level. As a result the county is one of the poorest counties in the United States. Economically its population has reached a level on par with Mexico, with subsistence farming and minimum wage earning jobs leaving little ability to drive the economic down further. Most of the consumption spending and wealth outside of agriculture is now tied into the drug trade whose underground economy has provided relief in certain sectors of the county economy and allowing its receipts to grow in real terms for the first time in decades. Nonetheless, this is primarily money recovered from illegal merchant trade crossing the county and with no manufacturing, the county economy was still devoted to large-scale ranching and vegetable farming which provides the overwhelming amount of official tax receipts from the government. However, this large scale industrial farming has over the years brought droughts and overgrazing, thereby damaging the range land. Parts of the prairies supported only one animal per 48 hectares. Powerful pumps, drawing water for irrigation and livestock use, lowered the groundwater levels and depleted many springs. However, in contrast to the more populous areas of the state, Presidio County offered clean air, rugged scenery, and historic sites. Among the attractions that contributed to the county's growing tourist industry were the Marfa Lights, hunting leases, and the nearby Big Bend National Park.
In popular culture
The Howard Hawks' film Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne, was set in Presidio County.
References
- ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=/cffiles/counties/usamap.cfm. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ The New York Times Electoral Map (Zoom in on Texas)
- ^ David Leip's Presidential Election Atlas - 1984 statistics
External links
- Presidio County government's website
- Presidio County from the Handbook of Texas Online
- West Texas Weekly- a local weekly newspaper.
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| Guadalupe, Chihuahua, Mexico | Manuel Benavides, Chihuahua, Mexico and Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico |
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