Comstock 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 ...

located in

Val Verde County, Texas Val Verde County is a county located on the southern Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population is 47,586. Its county seat is Del Rio. The Del Rio micropolitan statistical area includes all of Val Verde County. Val ...

, United States, approximately 20 miles northwest of Del Rio on

U.S. 90 U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. It generally travels near Int ...

. It is the town nearest to Seminole Canyon, which has been a site of human habitation for 9,000 years. In 2010, Comstock had a population of 475 residents.

History

Comstock was founded ''circa'' 1883 on the

Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway (B.B.B.C. or B.B.B. & C.), also called the Harrisburg Road or Harrisburg Railroad, was the first operating railroad in Texas. It completed its first segment of track between Harrisburg, Texas (now a ...

as the line drove west toward

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 ...

. Although first platted as Sotol City, it was later named for John Comstock, a railroad dispatcher. The town was located near a natural lake, which was used for the town's water supply, but which today is only intermittent. The town was granted a post office in 1888, but its remote location and limited resources kept the town from growing quickly. Comstock was at the height of its activity between 1888 and 1910, when the Deaton Stage Line operated between the town's railroad depot and the city of Ozona, some 60 mi (100 km) north. The depot at Comstock did not long outlast the stagecoach line, and although the names on the businesses have changed, little has changed in the town in 70 years.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

’s

Sunset Limited The ''Sunset Limited'' is a long-distance passenger train run by Amtrak, operating on a route between New Orleans and Los Angeles. Major stops include Houston, San Antonio and El Paso in Texas, as well as Tucson, Arizona. Opening in 1894 thr ...

passes through the town on

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

tracks, but makes no stop. A stop is located 30 miles to the south in Del Rio.

Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site

Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site has cave drawings and other evidence of settlement dating from the early Archaic period, around 7000 BC. Later remains include stone circles and cairns of the late Prehistoric, and even 19th-century remains from the construction of the

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names ...

, one of the nation's first

transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

Education

Comstock is served by the

Comstock Independent School District Comstock Independent School District is a public school district based in the community of Comstock, Texas, United States. The district consists of a single K-12 school located in Comstock. In addition to Comstock, the district also serves ...

. The whole county is served by

Southwest Texas Junior College Southwest Texas College, formerly Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC), is a public community college with four campuses serving 11 counties in southwest Texas: unincorporated Uvalde County (next to Uvalde and on the site of Garner Field), ...

according to the Texas Education Code.Texas Education Code: Sec. 130.200. SOUTHWEST TEXAS JUNIOR COLLEGE DISTRICT SERVICE AREA.
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References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Val Verde County, Texas