Ward 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 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 11,644. The county seat is Monahans. The county was created in 1887 and organized in 1892. It is named for Thomas W. Ward, a soldier in the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

History

Native Americans

Archeological investigations conducted in northwestern Ward County have found evidence of prehistoric man in the form of occupational debris,

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s, and

pictographs A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

. Tribes occupying the area include Suma-Jumano,

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

, 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 ...

. The sand hills have contained native artifacts.

Growth

The

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...

in 1858 used Emigrant's Crossing, where exposed rocks afford one of the few places safe for fording 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 ...

. The stage line had an adobe station and a high-walled adobe corral there. In 1881, the

Texas and Pacific Railway The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T&P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. However its lines never went we ...

crossed the region and established stations at Sand Hills, Monahans, Aroya, Pyote, Quito, Quito Quarry, and Barstow. The Texas State Legislature carved Ward County from a portion of Tom Green County in 1887. The county was organized in 1892. Barstow became the county seat. Barstow became a farming and ranching trade center by 1904. Drought plagued the area in the early part of the 20th century. Ward County benefitted from the opening of the Hendrick oilfield Winkler County in 1926. Pipelines and railroad loading tanks were constructed at Wickett, Pyote, and Monahans. Oil was discovered at Grandfalls in 1929, and the nearby community of

Royalty Royalty may refer to: * the mystique/prestige bestowed upon monarchs ** one or more monarchs, such as kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses, etc. *** royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen-regnant, and sometimes h ...

was established.

Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States–based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is among the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...

constructed an tank that would hold a million barrels. By January 1, 1991, of oil had been produced in the county since 1928. On May 10, 1938, Monahans won a contested election to move the county seat from Barstow. The election was upheld in 1939, and the county seat moved to Monahans that year. Pyote Air Force Station opened in 1942, becoming the largest bomber installation in the United States. The plane ''

Enola Gay The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel (United States), Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the Atomi ...

'', which dropped the atomic bomb on

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

, was later stored here. The base became inactive during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. Monahans Sandhills State Park opened in 1957. The Sealy-Smith Foundation leased much of the land to the state in 1956 until 2056. An additional were leased from the Williams family of Monahans.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, 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 U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the county has a total area of , of which all but (0.03% or about 125 ac) are land.

Major highways

Interstate 20 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with I-10 in Reeves County, Texas, and ending at an interchange with I-95 in Florence, South Carolina. B ...

* State Highway 18 * State Highway 115 * State Highway 329

Adjacent counties

* Winkler County (north) * Ector County (northeast) * Crane County (east) * Pecos County (south) * Reeves County (west) * Loving County (northwest)

Demographics

As of the 2000

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 ...

, 10,909 people, 3,964 households, and 2,929 families were 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 . The 4,832 housing units averaged . The racial makeup of the county was 79.79% White, 4.61% African American, 0.66% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 12.55% from other races, and 2.11% from two or more races. About 41.98% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. Of the 3,964 households, 36.6% had children under 18 living with them, 58.8% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.1% were not families. About 23.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.66, and the average family size was 3.15. In the county, the age distribution was 30.6% under 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.3 males. The median income for a household in the county was $29,386, and for a family was $36,014. Males had a median income of $31,373 versus $18,198 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 $14,393. About 15.80% of families and 17.90% 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 20.30% of those under age 18 and 20.10% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

unincorporated area 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 ...

near Pyote is the site of the former Pyote Air Force Base. The facility housed the West Texas State School, operated by the Texas Youth Commission, until the youth detention facility closed in 2010.Ward, Mike.
Report: school "did not provide a safe environment"
." ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

''. Saturday March 17, 2007. Retrieved on May 23, 2010.TYC Facility in Pyote Officially Closes Their Doors
" Newswest 9. Retrieved on June 3, 2010.

Politics

Communities

Cities

* Barstow * Monahans (county seat)

Towns

* Grandfalls * Pyote * Thorntonville * Wickett

Census-designated place

* Southwest Sandhill

Unincorporated community

References

External links

Ward County government's website
*
Historic Ward County materials
hosted by th
Portal to Texas History.
{{coord, 31.51, -103.10, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1887 establishments in Texas