Bakersfield

	Bakersfield Coyanosa Fort Stockton Girvin Imperial Iraan Nations Sheffield
Bakersfield - is at the intersection of Interstate Highway 10 and Farm Road 11, thirty-six miles east of Fort Stockton and nine miles south of the Pecos River in eastern Pecos County. It was named for J. T. Baker, a promoter who hoped to develop the town site in 1929 after the discovery of oil in the Taylor-Link field. A post office was established at Bakersfield the same year. The community grew rapidly as a grocery store, a cafe, a hotel, a real estate office, a pool hall, and numerous rent houses were hastily built. The population of Bakersfield was estimated to be more than 1,000 in 1930. Declining oil production and prices in 1930 caused Bakersfield to be abandoned, however, as rapidly as it was built. Many of the buildings were moved from the town site. In 1945 the town had two businesses and an estimated population of fifty. The population declined by 1976 to thirty, where it remained in 2000.
Coyanosa- is at the intersection of Farm roads 1776 and 1450, twenty-six miles northwest of Fort Stockton in northwestern Pecos County. It was originally settled as a ranching community. A post office was established there in 1908 and discontinued in 1918. Numerous water wells were drilled in the area during the 1950s to irrigate nearby cotton farms. No population statistics were available for the community until 1958, when it reported 200 residents. Around this time the post office was reopened. By 1961 Coyanosa reported eight businesses and an estimated population of 600. Greatly increased fuel prices in the mid-1970s made irrigation unprofitable and forced most nearby cotton farms out of business. By the mid-1970s the population of Coyanosa had declined to 270. Its population was still recorded as 270 in the early 1990s, when the community also reported seven rated businesses. In 2000 the population was 138.
Fort Stockton-the county seat of Pecos County, is on Interstate Highway 10, U.S. highways 67, 290, and 385, and the Santa Fe Railroad, 329 miles northwest of San Antonio and 245 miles east of El Paso. It grew up around Comanche Springs, at one time the third largest source of spring water in Texas, and near the military fort founded in 1859 and named for Robert Field Stockton. Comanche Springs was a favorite rest stop on the Comanche Trail to Chihuahua, the Old San Antonio Road, the Butterfield Overland Mail route, and the San Antonio-Chihuahua freight-wagon road. The Confederates took possession of the fort at the outbreak of the Civil War but abandoned it the next year. In 1867 the army rebuilt the fort on a larger and more permanent basis to protect travelers and settlers from Indians. Until abandoned in 1886, the fort provided employment for freighters and laborers and a market for farmers, stockmen, and merchants. San Antonio entrepreneurs, convinced that the water from Comanche and nearby Leon springs could be used for irrigation, purchased large tracts of land for agricultural development. In 1868 Peter Gallagher bought the land that included the military garrison and Comanche Springs, platted 160 acres for a town site named Saint Gall, and established two stores at Comanche Springs. Later, Gallagher and John James purchased 5,500 acres along Comanche Creek. By 1870 the Saint Gall region had a population of 420 civilians, predominantly Irish, German, and Mexican Catholics who had come by way of San Antonio. The first church in Saint Gall was Catholic. When Pecos County was organized in 1875, Saint Gall became the county seat. The name, however, was never popular with the citizens, and on August 13, 1881, it was changed officially to Fort Stockton. By 1870 some settlers were using the water from the Pecos River for irrigation. Seven years later irrigated farmland comprised 7,000 acres, and by 1945 the total reached 12,900 acres. After the military post was abandoned on June 30, 1886, and both the Texas and Pacific and the Southern Pacific railroads had bypassed it, Fort Stockton experienced a decline. By then, however, it was rapidly becoming the center for an extensive sheep and cattle ranching industry, and in 1926 the opening of the nearby Yates oilfield brought on an economic boom. In 1980 Fort Stockton had a broad-based economy and a population of 8,868. In addition to its irrigated agriculture and extensive ranches, it had become a major center for the production, processing, and distribution of oil, gas, and sulfur. Its historic sites, including Comanche Springs, the remains of the old fort, and the Annie Riggs Memorial Museum, are tourist attractions. In 1990 the population was 8,524; by 2000 it had dropped to 7,846.
Girvin-originally named Granada, is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 385 and Farm Road 11, near the Pecos River thirty-two miles northeast of Fort Stockton in northeastern Pecos County. A community began there in the 1890s, when stock raisers moved into the region. The town was eventually named for John H. Girvin, a local rancher. In 1912 the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway completed track construction from Mertzon to Girvin after crossing the Pecos River. A post office was established at Girvin on January 31, 1913. The original town site was located on both sides of the tracks, near the rail station. Soon the town also had a store, a hotel, a saloon, and a lumberyard, and stock pens were built near the tracks. The first school was a small wooden building, but by the late 1920s or early 1930s the Girvin Independent School District had built a brick schoolhouse. This, however, proved to be too small, and during the 1930-31 school year one class had to meet in a nearby lumberyard. In 1924 Girvin had an estimated population of fifteen. When oil production began in the nearby Yates and Trans-Pecos oilfields in the late 1920s, Girvin became a delivery point for equipment and supplies. The oilfields also needed electrical power, so Girvin received electricity in 1929 after the construction of the Rio Pecos Power Plant across the Pecos River. A salt works was built a mile west of town in 1931. In 1933 a new highway from Fort Stockton to McCamey bypassed the original town site, and Girvin immediately began to decline. The community reported five businesses and a population of seventy-five in 1939. In 1944 the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway, which by then owned the track through Girvin, razed the section of the Girvin depot used for freight; the passenger station was closed in 1955. By 1963 the estimated population of Girvin had declined to thirty, with only two businesses reported, and by 1967 the original town site was abandoned. During the 1980s only a few residents and a number of abandoned buildings, including a two-story concrete filling station and garage, remained at the old location. In 2000 the population at the new site was still estimated at thirty.
Imperial- is at the intersection of Farm roads 1053 and 11, four miles south of the Pecos River and twenty-eight miles northeast of Fort Stockton in northern Pecos County. It may have been known as Redlands from 1908 until around 1910 but was apparently renamed for the Imperial Valley of California when a post office and school were established there in 1910. In 1911 a townsite was laid out for the owner of the property, Benjamin E. Bush. Water was diverted from the Pecos River, and a dam was built to form the Imperial Reservoir, eight miles west of the community. An irrigation canal was constructed through Imperial in an effort by land promoters to attract buyers. Water rights were given to buyers, but high saline levels, a declining water supply, and low profits made farming unproductive. In 1925 Imperial had a population of twenty-five. The town had eleven rated businesses and a population of 250 in 1949. By 1968 the population was nearing 1,000, and the town supported twenty-six businesses. However, by 1986 the population had fallen to 720, and only twelve businesses remained. In 1990 the population was still recorded as 720. The population dropped to 428 in 2000.
Iraan-is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 190 and State Highway 349, near the Pecos River sixteen miles northwest of Sheffield in eastern Pecos County. It came into existence after the discovery of oil on the nearby Ira G. Yates ranch in 1926 (see YATES OILFIELD). Iraan was named for Ira and Ann Yates in a contest that offered a town lot as a prize. Tents, shacks, and bunkhouses were initially the only housing available, as oil companies rushed to move workers and their families to the boomtown. The Ohio Oil Company built company houses, drilled water wells, and in 1927 hired teachers and provided a school. A post office was established in 1928. By 1930 Iraan had sixty rated businesses and an estimated population of 1,600. In the 1930s V. T. Hamlin, a local newspaper man, began the "Alley Oop" comic strip, which was nationally syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprises Association. A park named for the cartoon character was dedicated in Iraan in 1965. The population of Iraan dropped to 951 by 1967, when declining oil production forced several major oil companies to move their offices from the community. In 1986, after the temporary rally in the oil business in the 1970s and early 1980s, Iraan had twenty-five businesses and a population of 1,358. In 1990 the population was 1,322, and in 2000 the population was 1,238.
Nations
Sheffield- is at the intersection of Farm Road 1217 and U.S. highways 290 and 349, sixteen miles southeast of Iraan on the eastern edge of Pecos County. The site, near a ford in the Pecos River and Pecos Spring, was long a stopping point for nomadic Indians. The first documented Europeans to visit the area were Spanish explorer Gaspar Castaño de Sosaqv and his men, who traveled up the Pecos River in 1590. Several other Spanish expeditions passed through or near the future townsite of Sheffield but established no permanent settlements. In 1849 lieutenants Francis T. Bryan, Nathaniel Michler, and W. H. C. Whitingqv made a preliminary survey for a proposed stage road from San Antonio to El Paso. The route they chose crossed the Pecos at the site of the old Indian ford. The trail became the San Antonio-El Paso Mailqv route and eventually served thousands of settlers moving west. Ranchers attracted by the availability of water and inexpensive ranchland began to settle the area around Sheffield in the late 1880s. The first settler was John Cannon, who came in 1888 and purchased a tract along the Pecos River, including Pecos Spring itself. Around 1900 a small settlement sprang up on land adjoining the Cannon ranch owned by Will Sheffield, and the town became known as Sheffield. A post office was opened in 1898 with Sheffield as first postmaster. In 1901 Sheffield opened a grocery store. A few homes and businesses grew up around the store, and by 1906 the town had three grocery stores, two wagonyards, a blacksmith shop, a barbershop, a four-room hotel, and a saloon. The town prospered in the following years as a supply point and social center for surrounding ranchers. The discovery of oil in the Trans-Pecos in the late 1920s radically altered the economy of the region, as oil-boom towns such as nearby Iraan sprang up. Sheffield also grew slowly, from 124 in 1925 to 350 by 1949, when the town had eleven businesses. The Sheffield Township field began producing natural gas in 1971. With the construction of U.S. Highway 290 in the 1920s, Sheffield became a stopping point for traveling motorists. Although Interstate 10 bypassed it in the early 1980s, the town continued to thrive. In 1985 Sheffield had several stores and restaurants, an elementary school, three churches, and a population of 300. In 2000 the community had fifteen businesses and a population of 600.