REEVES COUNTY TEXAS:

                       Is on Interstate Highway 20 in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas with the northern edge of its irregular shape touching New Mexico. On the northeast it borders the Pecos River, which separates it from Loving and Ward counties. It is bounded on the southeast by Pecos County, on the southwest by Jeff Davis County, and on the west by Culberson County. Pecos, the county seat, is seventy-four miles southwest of Odessa. The center of the county lies at 31°20' north latitude and 103°40' west longitude. Reeves County comprises 2,626 square miles of land with flat and undulating terrain in its northern part and mountainous topography in the extreme south. Altitudes, including those in the Davis Mountains, vary from 2,538 to 4,210 feet above sea level. The Barrilla Hills rise abruptly with steep slopes to a height of 150 to 200 feet above the surrounding plain. About 85 percent of the county is covered by a broad gently-sloping plain topped by outwash material from the mountains. Surface geology is mostly Quaternary, except for the extreme southeastern corner, which is Igneous, and the western and eastern edges, which are Cretaceous. Soils are light reddish-brown to brown sands, clay loams, clays, and rough stony lands. The average annual temperature is 64° F. The growing season extends 226 days. Rainfall, which averages ten inches per year, runs into several intermittent lakes in the west central area of the county. These shallow playas fill with water after downpours, but shrink and sometimes disappear through evaporation between rains. Toyah Lake is the largest playa in the county, with walls formed by cliffs of ten to forty feet in height. The entire county is drained by the Pecos River. The main tributaries are Salt and Toyah creeks and Four Mile, Horsehead, and Salt draws. Two lakes provide water for recreation and irrigation: Red Bluff Reservoir on the Pecos River in extreme northwestern Reeves County and Balmorhea Lake in the southwest. Vegetation consists of sparse grasses, scrub brush, Creosotebush, cacti, oak, juniper, and mesquite, which provides the area's only timber. Natural resources include gypsum, limestone, salt, oil, gas, and volcanic ash. Other minerals include brine, sand, gravel, and recovered Sulphur. Less than 1 percent of the land is considered prime farmland.

The first people to inhabit Reeves County lived in the rock shelters and caves around the edge of the Barrilla Hills and built permanent camps near Phantom Lake, San Solomon Spring, and Toyah Creek. These prehistoric people left behind artifacts and pictographs as evidence of their presence. The Jumanos Indians irrigated crops of corn and peaches from San Solomon Spring, where Balmorhea State Recreation Area is now located. Three Jumanos met the expedition of Antonio de Espejo near Toyah Lake in 1583, and guided explorers to La Junta by a better route. Settlers of Mexican descent farmed in the county's Madera Valley from early times. In 1849 John S. Ford traveled along Toyah Creek and noted the productive land upon which the Mescalero Indians cultivated corn. Farmers of Mexican descent who irrigated from San Solomon Spring in the last half of the nineteenth century found a lucrative market for grains, vegetables, and beef at Fort Davis. The first Anglo farmers arrived in Toyah Valley in 1871, when George B. and Robert E. Lyle began irrigating crops from Toyah Creek. Open range ranching first attracted White settlers to the Davis Mountains in 1875.

By 1881 the Texas and Pacific Railway built tracks through Reeves County. At that time section houses were constructed at Pecos and Toyah, which opened a post office that year and later became a shipping point for local ranchers. Pecos was named the seat of government when Reeves County was separated from Pecos County in 1883 and organized in 1884. Pecos constructed a three-room school in 1883 and opened a post office in 1884. The county was named for Confederate colonel George R. Reeves.

The name of the first community was Saragosa, which opened a post office in 1884. The name was changed to Lyles in 1891 and to Toyahvale in 1894. By 1885, when several ranchers herded cattle on the northern range of the county, Pecos reported 150 residents and Toyah had sixty. By 1890 the county population had expanded to 1,247, including seven African Americans, fifteen Chinese, and 351 foreign-born residents. In that year a second railroad, the Pecos River, constructed fifty-four miles of tracks from Pecos to the New Mexico line along the river, providing transportation for local agricultural products. In 1894 a post office was established at Brogado, nine miles southeast of Pecos, and Toyah built its first school. By 1899 Toyahvale had a public school district with three schools, and during the 1899–1900 school term the Pecos school had 111 students and three teachers. A second school was added for the 1900–01 term with 148 pupils and four teachers. A second community called Saragosa, located in the southernmost part of the county, was designated a post office in 1900. In that year the census reported a total of 1,847 county residents, including 474 foreign-born, twelve African Americans, and ten Chinese. In 1902 Toyah organized its first church. Reeves County reported five manufacturing establishments that employed sixteen workers at wages totaling $8,835 and made products worth $30,085 in 1900. Manufacturers increased to nine by 1920, with sixty-two employees earning just over $88,000 and producing $187,000 worth of goods. From 1940 to 1967 the number of manufacturers grew from five to seventeen, but that number declined to eleven in 1982. The values of production over those years increased from $165,807 in 1940 to $3.6 million by 1977, but manufacturing remained secondary to agriculture and petroleum in the county economy.