Crosby County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 5,133. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

is Crosbyton. The county was founded in 1876 and later organized in 1886. Both the county and its seat are named for

Stephen Crosby Stephen Crosby (1808–1869) was an American politician. He served as the commissioner of the General Land Office for Texas in the 1850s and 1860s. He is the namesake of Crosby County, Texas. Early life Stephen Crosby was born in 1808 in Sou ...

, a land commissioner in Texas. Crosby County, along with

Lubbock Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...

and Lynn Counties, is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The Lubbock MSA and Levelland Micropolitan Statistical Area (µSA), encompassing only Hockley County, form the larger

Lubbock–Levelland Combined Statistical Area The Lubbock-Plainview-Levelland Combined Statistical Area is made up of five counties (Crosby, Hale, Hockley, Lynn, and Lubbock) in the South Plains region of west Texas. As of March 2020, the Lubbock-Plainview-Levelland CSA consists of the Lubbo ...

. Until the passage of a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

to permit liquor sales, held on May 11, 2013, Crosby County had been one of 19 remaining

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

or entirely

dry counties A dry county is a County (United States), county in the United States whose government forbids the sale of any kind of alcoholic beverages. Some prohibit off-premises sale, some prohibit on-premises sale, and some prohibit both. Dozens of dry c ...

within Texas. That same day, voters in Denver City and Yoakum County also approved separate referendums to permit liquor sales. The number of prohibition counties in Texas at that time hence dropped to 17. Part of the large

Matador Ranch A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activity ...

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

extends into the county.

History

Around 11,000 BC, Paleo-Indians were the first inhabitants. Archeological artifacts indicate

hunter-gatherers A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

hunted the

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

saber-toothed cat Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 million until ...

, and

giant ground sloth ''Megatherium'' ( ; from Greek () 'great' + () 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type species ' ...

. Later Native American inhabitants included the

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

. In 1871,

Ranald S. Mackenzie Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, also called Bad Hand, (July 27, 1840 – January 19, 1889) was a career United States Army officer and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was described by General Ulysses S. Grant as its ...

fought

Quanah Parker Quanah Parker (Comanche ''kwana'', "smell, odor") ( – February 23, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwah ...

and other Comanches at the

Battle of Blanco Canyon The Battle of Blanco Canyon was the decisive battle of Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's initial campaign against the Comanche in West Texas, and marked the first time the Comanches had been attacked in the heart of their homeland. It was also the first ...

. The campaign established the Mackenzie Trail used by the first settlers in Crosby County in the late 1870s. The Texas Legislature formed Crosby County from

Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American roc ...

and Bexar districts in 1876.

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n Heinrich Schmidtt (Henry “Hank” Clay Smith) and his wife Elizabeth Boyle and their six children became the first permanent settlers in the area in 1878; Hank was active in the county's organization. Confederate veteran Paris Cox first visited the Caprock Escarpment of the Llano Estacado with a group of

buffalo hunters Buffalo most commonly refers to: * Bubalina, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York Buffalo or buffaloes may also refer to: Animals * Bubalina, a subtribe of the t ...

in 1879. Estacado was named the county seat in 1886. By 1900, the beef industry was thriving, supporting 30,618 head. In 1908, the Bar-N-Bar Ranch began selling acreage to farmers. Crosbyton became the new county seat in 1910. Some in the county were planted in cotton, and 15,000 apple and peach trees were growing in the county in 1920. By 1929, farmers owned 83,000 chickens and sold 395,000 dozen eggs that year. The first soil conservation district in the county was formed in 1941. In 1955, oil was discovered in the county.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (0.2%) are covered by water.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 62 U.S. Route 62 or U.S. Highway 62 (US 62) runs from the Mexico–United States border, Mexican border at El Paso, Texas, to Niagara Falls, New York, near the Canada–United States border, Canadian border. It is the only east-west ...

U.S. Highway 82 U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is an east–west United States highway in the Southern United States. Created on July 1, 1931 across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas, US 82 eventually became a 1,625-mile (2,615 km) route extending from ...

/ State Highway 114 * Texas 207

State Highway 207

Adjacent counties

* Floyd County (north) * Motley County (northeast) * Dickens County (east) * Kent County (southeast) *

Garza County Garza County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 5,816, of which most of the population were residing in Its county seat, and only incorporated municipality, Post. The county was created ...

(south) * Lynn County (southwest) *

Lubbock County Lubbock County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 census placed the population at 310,639. Its county seat and largest city is Lubbock, Texas, Lubbock. The county was cre ...

(west) * Hale County (northwest)

Geographic features

* Blanco Canyon * White River, Silver Falls *

Mount Blanco Mount Blanco is a small white hill — an erosional remnant — located on the eastern border of the Llano Estacado within Blanco Canyon in Crosby County, Texas. With Blanco Canyon, it is the type locality of the Blanco Formation of Texas and Kan ...

* Caprock Escarpment

Demographics

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.'' As of the census of 2000, 7,072 people, 2,512 households, and 1,866 families resided in the county. The population density was eight people per square mile. The 3,202 housing units averaged four per square mile. The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the county was 63.77% White, 3.89% Black or African American, 0.54% Native American, 0.03% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 29.89% from other races, and 1.81% from two or more races. About 48.93% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 2,512 households, 35.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.0% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.7% were not families. About 23.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.30. In the county, the population was distributed as 30.7% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 24.0% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.2 males. The median income for a household in the county was $25,769, and for a family was $29,891. Males had a median income of $23,775 versus $17,229 for females. The per capita income for the county was $14,445. About 22.6% of families and 28.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.6% of those under age 18 and 22.7% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

* Crosbyton (county seat) * Lorenzo * Ralls

Unincorporated communities

Cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

* Kalgary

Ghost towns

* Canyon Valley * Estacado (partly in

)

Education

School districts serving the county include: * Crosbyton Consolidated Independent School District *

Lorenzo Independent School District Lorenzo Independent School District is a public school district based in Lorenzo, Texas, Lorenzo, Texas (United States, USA). Located in Crosby County, Texas, Crosby County, a small portion of the district extends into Lubbock County, Texas, Lubb ...

Petersburg Independent School District Petersburg Independent School District is a public school district based in Petersburg, Texas ( USA). Located in Hale County, small portions of the district extend into Crosby and Floyd counties. In 2009, the school district was rated "academi ...

* Ralls Independent School District The county is in the service area of

South Plains College South Plains College (SPC) is a public community college in Levelland, Texas. It operates satellite branches in Plainview, at the Reese Technology Center, formerly Reese Air Force Base, in western Lubbock, and the Lubbock Center near centra ...

Gallery

File:Mt Blanco 2005.jpg,

File:Blanco Canyon in Crosby County Texas 2009.jpg, Blanco Canyon File:Llano_Estacado_Caprock_Escarpment_south_of_Ralls_TX_2009.jpg, Caprock Escarpment south of Ralls

Politics

Republican

Drew Springer Jr. Drew Alan Springer Jr. (born October 27, 1966) is an American businessman and politician serving as a Republican member of the Texas Senate who represents District 30. Education Springer graduated from Weatherford High School in 1985. He then e ...

, a businessman from

Muenster Muenster may refer to: * Münster, Germany * Muenster, Saskatchewan * Muenster, Texas * Muenster cheese Muenster ( or ) or munster is a semi-soft cheese from the United States. It is thought to be an imitation of the Alsatian washed-rind Muns ...

in Cooke County, has since January 2013 represented Crosby County in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

References

External links

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

Crosby County government’s website
*
Crosby County Profile from the Texas Association of Counties

{{Coord, 33.61, -101.30, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1886 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1886 Majority-minority counties in Texas