Crockett County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located on the Edwards Plateau 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 so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,098. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Ozona. The county was founded in 1875 and later organized in 1891. It is named in honor of

Davy Crockett Colonel (United States), Colonel David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American politician, militia officer and frontiersman. Often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier", he represented Tennesse ...

, the legendary frontiersman who died at the

Battle of the Alamo The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a siege of the Alamo, 13-day siege, Mexico, Mexican troops under president of Mexico, President Antonio L� ...

History

Prehistoric people lived in Gobbler Shelter, located on a small tributary canyon of Live Oak Creek. The earliest known Native American tribes were the

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...

, and

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

. In 1590, Spanish explorer Gaspar Castaño de Sosa led a mining expedition of 170 who passed through the western section of Crockett County to reach the

Pecos River The Pecos River ( ; ) originates in north-central New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, New Mexico, at an elev ...

. On May 22, 1684, Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and his expedition crossed the Pecos River and camped at San Pantaleón. John Coffee Hays's 1849 expedition charted waterholes for transporting people and freight., and three years later, U.S. Army Colonel Joseph K. Mansfield recommended establishing a new post on Live Oak Creek to protect travelers. Fort Lancaster was established on August 20, 1855, in response to Mansfield's recommendation. In 1866, the Texas legislature provided three battalions of Texas Rangers to protect settlers in the area. Camp Melvin was established in 1868. On January 12, 1875, Crockett County, named for

, was formed from Bexar County. Crockett County became a subsidiary of Val Verde County in 1885, and in 1887 was reduced further as

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

and Schleicher counties were formed from part of its territory. In 1889,

Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...

became the first town in Crockett County. Crockett County was organized in 1891, with Ozona serving as the county seat. The first water well was drilled at the First Baptist Church in Ozona that same year. One of the first settlers was W. P. Hoover, who settled on the

in 1885. Throughout the next decade, sheep and cattle ranchers established themselves in the county. The Kirkpatrick Hotel was built to serve stagecoach passengers and cowboys. Stagecoach services began running in 1900, and contemporary county reports listed seven manufacturing firms. The Crockett County Courthouse was built in 1902 by architect Oscar Ruffini. The building does multiple duty for courtroom and county offices, as well as a community center and dance hall. In 1925, the first producing oil well within the world, on L. P. Powell's ranch in north central Crockett County, by Chester R. Bunker's World Oil Company. Ozona erected a statue of Davy Crockett in the town square in 1938 and opened the Crockett County Museum the following year. In 1958, it was moved to its current location on the town square.Brochure, Crockett County Museum, Ozona, Texas

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , virtually all of which is land.

Major highways

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 ...

U.S. Highway 190 * Texas 137

State Highway 137 * Texas 163

State Highway 163 * Texas 349

State Highway 349

Adjacent counties

* Upton County (north) * Reagan County (north) * Irion County (northeast) * Schleicher County (east) * Sutton County (east) * Val Verde County (south) * Terrell County (south) * Pecos County (west) * Crane County (northwest) Crockett County is among the few counties in the United States to border as many as nine counties.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 4,099 people, 1,524 households, and 1,114 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 2,049 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 76.34%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.68%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.59% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 19.71% from other races, and 2.39% from two or more races. 54.70% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 1,524 households, out of which 36.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.30% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 9.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.90% were non-families. 24.70% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.19. In the county, the population was spread out, with 28.90% under the age of 18, 7.10% from 18 to 24, 26.40% from 25 to 44, 24.70% from 45 to 64, and 12.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 98.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $29,355, and the median income for a family was $34,653. Males had a median income of $29,925 versus $14,695 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $14,414. About 14.90% of families and 19.40% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 24.30% of those under age 18 and 18.20% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Census-designated place

* Ozona (county seat)

Ghost town

Politics

References

External links

Crockett County in ''Handbook of Texas Online''
at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

''Inventory of county records, Crockett County courthouse, Ozona, Texas''
hosted by th
Portal to Texas History
{{coord, 30.73, -101.41, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1891 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1891 Texas Hill Country Davy Crockett Majority-minority counties in Texas