Bakersfield is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Pecos County, Texas Pecos County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 15,193. The county seat is Fort Stockton. The county was created in 1871 and organized in 1875.. By Glenn Justice and John Leffler. Re ...

, United States. According to the ''

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

'', the dispersed community had an estimated population of 30 in 2000.

Geography

Bakersfield is located at . Its most visible feature is an

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

station on Farm to Market Road 11 serving motorists traveling on

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

. The community is located almost halfway between

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

and

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, nearly 275 miles from each.

History

The community was established on September 10, 1929, by Bob Walker and Farris Baker after the discovery of oil in Taylor-Link field. The University of Texas owned the land and offered ten year leases on lots and was said to be taking "25 per cent of the gross receipts." The community was named after J.T. Baker, a promoter with the UT lease who had hoped to develop the town site. Guy Rhinehart was the first person to settle there. A post office opened in the community that same year run by J. E. Davis. A hotel was moved to the location from

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

, seventy miles away. Bakersfield grew rapidly and the population was estimated at just over 1,000 in 1930. The period of rapid growth was short-lived, however, as oil production and prices declined during the 1930s. The resident population had declined to 75–100 by 1931. Buildings were sold for the lumber or moved off site. The post office was closed in August 1940. By 1945, Bakersfield had an estimated population of 50 residents and two businesses. The number of inhabitants had further declined to around 30, a figure that remained unchanged throughout the later half of the 20th century.

Education

Public education in the community of Bakersfield is provided by the

Iraan-Sheffield Independent School District Iraan-Sheffield Independent School District is a public school district based in Iraan, Texas, United States. In addition to Iraan, the district serves the communities of Sheffield and Bakersfield. Iraan-Sheffield ISD has three campuses: * ...

References

External links

* * Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Pecos County, Texas 1929 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1929 {{PecosCountyTX-geo-stub