Van Horn, Texas

Culberson County is located in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. It is bordered by New Mexico to the north and by Hudspeth, Reeves, and Jeff Davis counties in Texas. Van Horn, the county seat, is approximately 120 miles east of El Paso in the southwestern part of the county. The county's center lies about thirty-six miles northeast of Van Horn at approximately 32°27' north latitude and 104°29' west longitude. Interstate Highway 10 and U.S. Highway 80 cross southern Culberson County from east to west; U.S. Highway 90 enters the county from the south and terminates at Van Horn; and U.S. highways 62 and 180 cross the county's northwestern corner. Two lines belonging to the Union Pacific Railroad cross the county's southwestern corner. Culberson County comprises 3,815 square miles of terrain that varies from mountainous to nearly level, with elevations ranging from 8,751 feet on Guadalupe Peak, the highest spot in the state, to 3,000 feet. The county is in the Rio Grande basin. Soils in Culberson County are primarily shallow and stony, with some clay and sandy loams and sand. Vegetation consists of scrub brush, grasses, cacti, creosote bush, post oak, chaparral, oak, juniper, mesquite, yucca, and agave, with Douglas fir, aspen, Arizona cypress, maple, and madrone trees in the Guadalupe Mountains. The Guadalupes are also the home of several endangered or locally rare plant species, including bigtooth maple, ponderosa pine, chinquapin oak, Rocky Mountain juniper, Texas madrone, and Mexican buckeye, and of the only elk in Texas. Dolomite, gypsum, limestone, salt, silver, copper, lead, zinc, barite, and molybdenum are among the minerals found in Culberson County. The climate is mild and dry, with an average minimum temperature of 30° F in January and an average maximum of 94° in July. The growing season averages 224 days a year, and the average annual precipitation is ten inches. Less than 1 percent of the land in Culberson County is considered prime farmland. Today Culberson County is best known as the site of Guadalupe Mountains National Park , which includes Guadalupe Peak and is a major tourist attraction. The Guadalupes and the county's other mountains, such as the Delaware, Beach, Wylie, Sierra Diablo, Van Horn, Apache, and Baylor ranges, made the area ideal for Indians seeking protection from their enemies and a remote home base from which to launch attacks. The earliest sign of human occupation in the area, found in the Guadalupes, is a 12,000-year-old Folsom point. Later, hunter-gatherers probably inhabited the mountains only during the summer; they also left artifacts, as well as pictographs. The most famous indigenous inhabitants of the mountains, the Apaches, arrived about 600 years ago. They harvested agave, yucca, and sotol when meat was unavailable, and their agave-roasting pits are still visible in the Guadalupes. The area that was to become Culberson County was largely untouched by Spanish exploration, due to its forbidding topography. In 1583, however, Antonio de Espejo became the first European to see the Mescalero Apaches, on the prairie just east of the Guadalupe Mountains. Beginning about 1630 the Mescaleros were raiding the more populous Plains Navajos and Pueblos from the Guadalupes; fifty years later they had added El Paso del Norte to their list of targets. By the beginning of the eighteenth century Comanches from the Llano Estacado had ended the Apache domination of western Texas, and the Mescaleros, based in the Guadalupes, restricted their raids to a smaller geographical area. Their ferocity, however, was unaffected, and the Mescaleros became one of the most feared of all Indian groups in Texas. Their presence, combined with the area's isolation, ensured that the area would not become popular with White settlers. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, emigrants were seeking new routes to connect central and eastern Texas with El Paso and California. The 1849 gold rush increas

(Three miles south) One of Texas' first cross-country wagon trails. The San Antonio-El Paso section of this route was surveyed in 1848 by a party under the intrepid Indian fighter Jack Hays. Used first by emigrants and gold-seekers, it became part of the San Antonio-San Diego mail line (1857), one of America's pioneer mail services. Passengers on the line paid $200 (one-way) to share a swaying Concord coach with 600 pounds of mail and braved bandits, dust, floods, and Indians to spend 27 days traveling 1,500 miles. Service ended in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War.

First permanent structure in Van Horn. Earliest portion (built 1901) housed original city post office. Main portion was built in 1905-06 by John Cox of concrete blocks handmade by crew on site. In 1911-12, when Culberson was newly organized, served as the county courthouse. Until 1918, when converted to hotel by Fred Clark, structure was site for theatrical programs and school graduations and housed a saloon, offices, and all kinds of shops. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971

The Van Horn Mountains begin nine miles southwest of Van Horn in southeastern Hudspeth County and stretch sixteen miles southeast, across southwestern Culberson County and into northwestern Jeff Davis County (their center point is 30°42' N, 104°50' W). The highest elevation in the Van Horn Mountains is 5,565 feet above sea level. The surrounding rugged terrain is surfaced by shallow, stony soils that support post oak, live oak, piñon, juniper, chaparral, and grasses. The mountains, like the town of Van Horn, were named after Lt. James Judson Van Horn , who commanded a garrison at nearby Van Horn Wells from 1859 to 1861. The Van Horn Mountains have been fertile ground for minerals. The Hazel Mine, opened in 1856 by Thomas Owen or Owens, yielded over a million pounds of copper between 1891 to 1947 and more than two million ounces of silver over a similar period ( see COPPER PRODUCTION , and SILVER MINING ). When the price of silver rose in the early 1970s, exploration began near the old Plata Verde mine, but it ceased in the early 1980s when the price of silver dropped again. A mica quarry operated briefly in the Van Horns in the early 1980s.

[front side] 1830-1900. Native Georgian. Came to Texas 1856. Although opposed to secession he aided in raising 18th Texas Infantry as Lt. Colonel, C.S.A. Made commanding Colonel of 18th in 1862. After service in Vicksburg area broken health forced resignation of command winter 1862-63. As Adjutant and Inspector General of Texas 1863-64 responsible for protection of frontier against Indian attacks, Union invasion. A Memorial to Texans Who Served the Confederacy. Erected by the State of Texas 1963. [reverse side] War brought turmoil to Indians living in Kansas and the Indian Territory, with unfortunate results for Texans on the frontier. Most Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles aided the South, while others adhered to the North. Few Comanches made a treaty with the South; but a great majority with their allies, the Kiowas, held aloof from either side and plundered the frontier at will. Apaches and Kickapoos did the same from Mexico. Texas and Confederate troops, despite poor arms and mounts, held defense lines until war's end.