Mentone, Texas

Only Texan instrumental in mapping 3 major cattle trails: Shawnee, Western and Goodnight-Loving trails. Born in Kentucky. Came to Texas 1845, to farm, haul freight, deal in cattle. Started large Palo Pinto County ranch. In 1858, drove herd to Chicago-- first time in history Texas cattle trailed to northern market. In 1859 drove to Denver. When Civil War broke out, 1861, was Confederate beef contractor, furnishing meat to army commissaries. Served on 24-hour patrol squad against Indians in frontier town of Weatherford. Mapped an 1862 expedition by 300 or more Texans to wipe out depredating Indians on the home grounds in Colorado, but failed to get necessary men to put this plan into action. After the war, with Charles Goodnight, drove cattle from Palo Pinto to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos, then up the river to Indian reservations and forts in New Mexico. In 1867 on this trail, was shot by Comanches: crawled 5 miles, chewing an old kid glove for food. Hauled at price of $250 to Fort Sumner by Mexican traders, he had wounds treated, but died of gangrene. Partner packed corpse in charcoal, hauled him to Weatherford for burial, fulfilling last wish. Loving county was named for him in 1887.

Loving County, the smallest county in the Permian Basin of West Texas, is bounded on the east by Winkler County, on the south by Ward County, on the west by the Pecos River and Reeves County, and on the north by Eddy and Lea counties, New Mexico. The center of the county lies at 31°50' north latitude and 103°35' west longitude. Mentone, the county seat and only town in the county, is located in its southwestern corner seventy-five miles west of Odessa. Loving County consists of 671 square miles of flat desert terrain with a few low-rolling hills stretching over calichified bedrock and wash deposits of pebbles, gravel, and sand. The soils of the county-loams, chalk, clays, and sands-support desert shrubs, cacti, range grasses, and salt cedars along the river. Wildlife includes waterfowl, quail, deer, badgers, javelinas, rabbits, bobcats, coyotes, armadillos, skunks, opossums, raccoons, rattlesnakes, killifish, brine shrimp, and turtles. Elevations vary from 2,686 to 3,311 feet above sea level. Temperatures vary from an average low of 29° F in January to an average high of 96° in July. The growing season lasts 222 days. Rainfall averages just over ten inches. The county has an immature drainage system made up of hundreds of playas and dry draws that feed into the Pecos only after heavy rainfall. In 1936 Red Bluff Dam was built across the Pecos on the Texas-New Mexico boundary for irrigation and recreation. Water from the Pecos, however, is too saline for drinking, so the 100 residents of the county haul water from a community tank. In the prehistoric era, springs of pure water dotted the landscape and supported nomadic hunters and their prey. Antonio de Espejo crossed the area in 1583, fording the then-mighty Pecos at great risk. In 1854 Capt. John Pope surveyed the area for a railroad route. Convinced that he could drill artesian wells there, he returned in 1855 and located Pope's Camp fifteen miles east of the mouth of Delaware Creek in northwestern Loving County. After three years of unsuccessful attempts, he and his men abandoned the camp. The Butterfield Overland Mail ran a stage station at Pope's Camp from 1858 until 1861. From 1837 to 1874 the area of Loving County was part of the Bexar land district. In 1874 the Texas legislature separated Tom Green County from the Bexar District. In 1887 Loving County was separated from Tom Green County, but it remained attached to Reeves County for judicial purposes. It was named for Oliver Loving , an early Texas cattleman who was mortally wounded by Indians on the Pecos in the area of the county as he rode in advance of his herd in 1866. Loving County is the only Texas county to be organized twice. The first organization appears to have been a scheme to defraud on the part of the organizers. Early in 1893 six men from Denver, Colorado, organized the Loving Canal and Irrigation Company of Mentone, Texas, with the stated purpose of migrating to isolated Loving County and constructing an irrigation canal from the Pecos to surrounding farmland. Although the 1890 United States census reported a population of only three in Loving County, on June 13, 1893, the organizers of the canal company filed a petition with the Reeves County Commissioners Court signed by 150 allegedly qualified voters who requested separate organization for Loving County. The court approved the petition and allowed the organization of the county. A county election was held on July 8, 1893, eighty-three votes were reported, and county organization was approved. Mentone, a town laid out by the company organizers twelve miles north of the present Mentone, was designated the county seat. Irrigation company organizers and several nonresidents were elected to county offices. Subsequently, several families came to live in or near Mentone, probably intending to buy irrigated farmland. A general store and several adobe houses were built there. The Loving County Commissioners Court voted to issue bonds valued at

J. J. Wheat, Sr., wildcatter and developer of Mentone and Loving County, was born in Prescott, Arkansas, in 1871. As a young man, Wheat migrated to Texas and became a farmer. He married Ida Mae Tatom of New Mexico. They had three sons and a daughter. When he was forty-one years old, his crops were destroyed by hail for the third consecutive year, and Wheat became a cotton buyer. He later worked as an irrigation project promoter in Grandfalls, Texas. In 1919 or 1920 Wheat came to Loving County from Ward County. Recognizing the possibilities for oil promotion in unexplored Loving County, he bought several hundred acres of land. From October 1920 to 1925, Wheat leased minerals from other Loving County landowners for division into small drilling tracts. He organized Wheat Guarantee Company, a stock enterprise, in an effort to raise enough money to drill a test well. Company shares were offered to the public at $40 each. Early in 1921 Wheat and Bladen Ramsey organized the Toyah-Bell Oil Company and leased acreage on the Russell ranch one mile east of the site of Mentone in southwestern Loving County. Toyah-Bell, later renamed Ramsey Production Company, drilled two wildcats. Both wells were productive. Although the wells were plagued with problems, they attracted the attention of larger oil exploration companies. Wheat and Ramsey sold their interests in the wildcats to Hadlock Oil Company and Lockhart and Company, which developed Wheat field. J. J. Wheat's discovery led to a long-producing field which yielded nearly 22,000,000 barrels of oil by 1989. Wheat's oil discovery brought enough people into the area to create a need for reorganization of Loving County. On July 8, 1893, the county had been fraudulently organized and later abandoned by the crooks who had indebted it. When the Texas legislature disorganized the county May 12, 1897, it became the only Texas county to have that status. Although Wheat promoted the reorganization of the county by circulating petitions and calling meetings, reorganization came in May 1931, after his death. Among the hundreds of acres Wheat owned in Loving County was an 80-acre tract where Mentone, the proposed county seat, was laid out. Wheat promoted lots in the townsite and invited the residents of Porterville, a flood-prone town located near the river, to move there. When Porterville was abandoned, Mentone became the only town in Loving County. After reorganization of the county, Mentone became the seat of local government. Wheat died on January 19, 1931, in New Mexico.

Smallest County Seat in Texas Mentone Only town in Loving County -- last organized, most sparsely populated (both in total and per square mile) county in Texas. Established 1931 and named for an earlier town (10 miles north) which legend says was named by a French surveyor-prospector after his home on the Riviera. With population of 42, Mentone has no water system. (Water is hauled in.) Nor does it have a bank, doctor, hospital, newspaper, lawyer, civic club or cemetery. There are only two recorded graves in county. Some Indian skeletons, artifacts are found. Oil, farming, cattle country. (1967)

Over these tracks passed the Butterfield Stage, 1858-1861, providing for first time in history a combined passenger and mail service from Atlantic to Pacific coast. Operating westward from St. Louis and Memphis, John Butterfield's company used 1,350 mules and horses and 90 Concord coaches and wagons. Stages traveled rapidly, despite lack of real roads. A signal given approaching a station would assure food on table for travelers, and fresh horses ready. Stations were 12 to 113 miles apart. Route changes were often made to obtain water. The passengers and crew wore guns. Indians liked horses, so to reduce the danger of Indian attacks, mules were used west of Ft. Belknap. Trip one way took 25 days-- 7 consumed in crossing Texas, from near Preston (now under Lake Texoma) to Jacksboro, Ft. Belknap, Ft. Chadbourne, and El Paso. One-way fare for the 2,700 miles was $200. This marks a 113-mile span, from Emigrants' Crossing (82 mi. S) to Pope's Crossing (31 mi. N), that on inaugural trip, Sept. 16 - Oct. 12, 1858, had no team-change. Route ran parallel to Pecos River. By November there were 3 change stations in this area, one being Skillman's Stop (6 mi. N). Route was shortened in 1860, going by Forts Stockson, Davis and Quitman, west of the Pecos. Incise on base: Park site donated by Mr. and Mrs. N. F. Chapman, Pecos, Texas

The Loving Canal and Irrigation Company, in Mentone, Loving County , was organized early in 1893 by J. J. Combs, F. C. Ford, W. A. Hunter, S. L. Mettler, N. A. Munn, and R. G. Munn, all from Denver, Colorado. They stated that they intended to move to Loving County and construct an irrigation canal from the Pecos River to surrounding farmland. All of them arrived by April 1893. Hunter, Combs, and Mettler applied to the state land commissioner for titles, and the company platted Mentone twelve miles north of its present site. During the spring of 1893 the company hired Mexican laborers to build irrigation ditches and a dam to collect water from the river. Joe Hudgins, a pioneer of Reeves and Loving counties, was employed to haul rock for the dam and for the construction of buildings in Mentone. Construction ceased after a few months because the company never paid the workers. Although the 1890 United States census reported only three residents in the county, a petition filed on June 13, 1893, with the commissioners' court of Reeves County was signed by 150 allegedly qualified voters who requested separate organization for Loving County. The court approved the petition and allowed the organization of the county. A county election was held on July 8, 1893; eighty-three ballots were cast, county organization won, and Mentone was designated county seat. J. J. Combs was elected county judge, R. G. Munn became county clerk, N. A. Munn was chosen county treasurer, and F. C. Ford was elected inspector of hides and animals. Organizers of the canal company thus had a strong voice in county politics. After county organization several families came to live in or near Mentone, probably intending to buy irrigated farmland. A general store and several adobe houses were built there. The commissioners' court voted to issue bonds valued at $6,000 to build a courthouse in Mentone. Although construction began, the building was never finished. In August 1893 the Pecos River flooded and destroyed most of the irrigation project. The company brought in workers to repair the ditches by the fall of 1893. However, their reconstruction attempts failed. Farmers who planted crops in the spring saw them destroyed. The settlers left. The Mentone store closed before the end of 1893, at which time W. A. Hunter and N. A. Munn were the only Mentone residents. On September 6, 1893, the commissioners' court reportedly appointed Judge Combs agent to locate and acquire patents for the county public-school lands. He chose four leagues in Dawson and Gaines counties, and Loving County received the patents on February 9, 1894. The court authorized Combs to sell the four leagues on February 19, 1894, and he sold the land two days later. He conveyed one tract, league 271, to W. R. Fowler in exchange for a promissory note for $3,099.60, due five years later. In the spring of 1894 H. C. Withers and A. H. Randolph made a trip to the county to investigate reports of the illegal organization of Loving County for the firm of W. H. Abrams of New York City, which represented the owner of a large block of Loving County land. They found three people in Mentone, but they saw no evidence of roads or of travel. When Withers asked to examine the tax records, sheriff and tax collector W. A. Hunter told him that county clerk R. G. Munn had taken the records with him to Denver, Colorado. On November 8, 1894, a second county election reportedly reelected most of the Loving Canal and Irrigation Company organizers. There is some evidence that neither of the Loving County elections was legitimate. In any case none of the county officials remained in the county by 1897. Taxes were not collected for 1893 and 1894 and had not been assessed or collected for 1895 and 1896. The state legislature dissolved the county organization on May 12, 1897, and attached the territory to Reeves County once again. The Reeves County Commissioners Court taxed landowners of Loving County to pay off the county debt. L