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Texas Counties

Texas is divided into 254 counties, more than any other U.S. state Texas was originally divided into municipalities, a unit of local government under Spanish and Mexican rule. When the Republic of Texas gained its independence in 1836, there were 23 municipalities, which became the original Texas counties. Many of these would later be divided into new counties. The most recent county to be created was Kenedy County in 1921. The most recent county to be organized was Loving County in 1931

Culberson County, Texas

Culberson County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Van Horn
Year Organized: 1911
Square Miles: 3,813

Court House:

P.O. Box 158
County Courthouse
Van Horn, TX 79855-0158

Etymology - Origin of County Name

David Browning Culberson, a lawyer and soldier in the Civil War

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Culberson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is named for David B. Culberson, a lawyer and Confederate soldier in the American Civil War. The seat of the county is Van Horn

With the completion of the Texas and Pacific, white settlement of the area began in earnest. Among the pioneer settlers in what would become Culberson County were Ed Hamm, George Bristow, railroad agent Jack Veats, and the families of R. P. (Perry) Bean, A. A. (Gus) Cox, Sebastian (Ben) De Anda, J. H. Beach, and Robert K. Wylie.^qv Local mountain ranges were eventually named after the last two. The towns of Van Horn, Plateau, and Kent grew up along the railroad, and ranchers pushed up into the Guadalupes themselves. The influx of ranchers continued for the next three decades, and Van Horn grew into a prosperous cattle-shipping center. In 1911 a new county, named after David B. Culberson,^qv was separated from El Paso County. When Culberson County was organized in 1912, Van Horn was chosen as county seat. In 1920 the population of the county was only 912, of whom 910 were white. Perhaps reflecting the prevalence of ranching and the lack of urban centers, males outnumbered females 539 to 373. Ten years later the population had climbed to 1,228, 638 of whom were classified as white and 583 as Mexican. In subsequent years the population continued to increase: to 1,653 in 1940, 1,825 in 1950, 2,794 in 1960, and 3,429 in 1970. Between 1970 and 1980 the population declined slightly, to 3,315, but in 1982 had risen to 3,616. The 1982 population was mostly of Hispanic (63 percent), English (16 percent), or Irish (12 percent) descent

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/hcc28.html (accessed November 5, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,813 square miles (9,875 km²), of which, 3,812 square miles (9,874 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (1 km²) of it (0.01%) is water. The largest part of Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies in the northwest corner of the county, including Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas

Neighboring Counties:

Eddy County, New Mexico (north)
Reeves County (east)
Jeff Davis County (south)
Hudspeth County (west)
Otero County, New Mexico (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Van Horn (County Seat)

town

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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