Loving County, Texas

Loving County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. With a population at 64 during the 2020 census, it is the least populous county in the United States with a permanent population. Its county seat and only community is Mentone. The county was originally created in 1887, and after being disorganized in 1897, was reorganized in 1931.

History
Nomadic hunters inhabited the area during prehistory. Antonio de Espejo traveled in the area in 1583, and crossed the Pecos River. Immigrants used a ford, later named Pope's Crossing, for travel in the 1840s. John Pope surveyed the area in 1854, for the building of a transcontinental railroad. He created a camp in 1855, and conducted three drilling attempts, but only found water once and was unable to access it. Andrew A. Humphreys ordered Pope to end his drilling and abandon the camp on July 10, 1858. Soldiers were stationed at the camp created by Pope from 1858 to 1861. The route of the Butterfield Overland Mail went through the area.

Oliver Loving, after whom the county was named, and Charles Goodnight drove cattle through the area in 1866, creating the Goodnight–Loving Trail. Loving was shot by a Comanche native in 1867, and died from gangrene. The area was a part of Bexar County from 1837 to 1874, when it became a part of Tom Green County. Eleven people in the area, including Clay Allison, petitioned to the 19th session of the Texas Legislature to become a part of Reeves County. Loving County was created in 1887, by House Bill No. 113, although it was to be attached to Reeves County for certain purposes, including judicial and surveying.

Six men from Denver came to the county in 1893, and founded the Loving Canal and Irrigation Company and Mentone, which was named by a French surveyor for his home of Menton, France. On June 13, the men filed a petition with 150 signatures to the Reeves County Commissioners Court requesting the organization of the county and it was accepted. The county organization was approved by an election held on July 8, with 83 voters participating, and Mentone became the county seat. Another election was held in 1894, and both elections held in the county are believed to have been fraudulent. The county commission issued bonds worth $6,000 to construct a courthouse in Mentone, but the project was not completed as a flood in August destroyed the work that was done on the irrigation project. Accusations of illegal county organization arose, which were investigated by H. C. Withers and A. H. Randolph. They were informed by W. A. Hunter, the sheriff and tax collector, that R. G. Munn, the county clerk, had taken the tax records to Denver. All of the county officials had left the county by 1897, and the county was dissolved on May 12, 1897, and returned to Reeves County.

In December 1896, Hunter traveled to Pecos, Texas, but went missing with his horses either dying from starvation or being unaccounted for. His sister, Jennie M. Mettler, attempted to receive the $15,000 in life insurance that Hunter took out in November, but the insurance company refused to pay, as Hunter's body was not discovered. She filed a lawsuit and won in the first case and in the appeal made by the company to the Supreme Court of the United States. Hunter was found living in Birmingham, Alabama, under the name of Al Hunt in 1902. He had abandoned one of his horses, while riding the other one, to take a train from Barstow, Texas. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison, but his conviction was overturned on appeal.

The county has no cemetery, and the only grave in the area is for Shady Davis, a 21-year-old cowboy who was killed by his horse and buried 12 miles from Mentone in the 1920s. The population in the area increased following the discovery of oil, and led to the creation of the town of Ramsey. Loving County was reorganized in 1931, becoming the only county in Texas to be organized twice, and Ramsey was later renamed as Mentone.

On November 17, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Loving County was the last county in the contiguous United States to confirm at least one case of COVID-19, with three cases confirmed in the area. Earlier in August, a nonresident male at a man camp was confirmed to have contracted it. Additionally, at least two residents who had contracted it elsewhere returned to Loving County and quarantined, but those cases were not counted in the county's totals.



Geography
The county is three-fifths the size of Rhode Island. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 677 sqmi, of which 7.8 sqmi (1.1%) are covered by water.

Water in the area has to be imported from Kermit or Pecos, Texas, due to the groundwater in the area containing gypsum; the Pecos River was previously used for water before its salinity became too high. The Pecos River is the county's western boundary, forming the Red Bluff Reservoir along its northwestern border with Reeves County and Eddy County, New Mexico. The terrain of Loving County is described as flat desert, with a few low hills. Desert shrubs, range grasses, and cacti abound, with salt cedars along the river. Elevations vary from 2,686 to 3311 ft above sea level.

Loving is the smallest county by area in the Permian Basin region.

Major highways

 * [[Image:Texas 302.svg|20px]] State Highway 302
 * [[Image:Texas RM 652.svg|20px]] Ranch to Market Road 652

Adjacent counties

 * Lea County, New Mexico (north/Mountain Time Zone)
 * Winkler County (east)
 * Ward County (southeast)
 * Reeves County (southwest)
 * Eddy County, New Mexico (northwest/Mountain Time Zone)

Unincorporated communities

 * Mentone (county seat)

Ghost towns

 * Hay Flat (mostly in Winkler County)
 * Porterville
 * Woody

2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 64 people, 25 households, and 18 families resided in the county. The population density was 0.1 PD/sqmi. There were 34 housing units.

The racial makeup of the county was 87.5% White, 0.0% African American, 1.6% Native American, 0.0% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 1.6% from Some Other Races and 9.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.56% of the population. 30.2% of residents were under the age of 18, 2.3% were under 5 years of age, and 0.0% were 65 and older.

The county had been the least-populous county in the United States, with a 2020 census population of only 64 persons (a decrease of 22.0% over the 2010 figure of 82 residents), but the 2023 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau places it as the first-least populous county nationwide. With an average of only 0.0646 /km2 as of 2023, the county is also the least-densely populated county outside of Alaska. Lake and Peninsula Borough and North Slope Borough in Alaska are both lower, as is the Yukon-Koyukuk census area.

From 2018 to 2022, the median household income for the county was $141,373, up from $84,306 in 2010. Owing partly to its small and dispersed population, it had the highest median per capita and household incomes of any county in Texas.

2010 census
As of the 2010 census, there were 82 people, 39 households, and 20 families resided in the county. The population density was 0.1 PD/sqmi. There were 50 housing units. The racial makeup of the county was 79.3% White, 0.0% African American, 4.9% Native American, 0.0% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 8.5% from Some Other Races and 7.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.95% of the population.

2000 census
As of the 2000 census, there were 67 people, 31 households, and 19 families living in the county. The population density was 0.1 PD/sqmi. There are 70 housing units at an average density of 0.1 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of the county was 89.2% White, 0.0% African American, 0.0% Native American, 0.0% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.0% from Some Other Races and 0.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were % of the population.

There are 31 households out of which 5 have children under the age of 18 living with them, 17 are married couples living together, 2 have a female householder with no husband present, and 11 are non-families. Ten households are made up of individuals and 2 consist of someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.16 and the average family size is 2.65.

In the county, the population is spread out with 13 people under the age of 18, one between 18 and 24, 18 from 25 to 44, 24 from 45 to 64, and 11 who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 46 years. For every 100 females there are 116.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 125.00 males.

The median income for a household in the county is $40,000, and the median income for a family is $53,750. Males have a median income of $25,833 versus $0 for females. The per capita income for the county is $24,084. None of the population and no families are below the poverty line.

Three people were living in the county, all males in the same house, according to the 1890 census. Following the disestablishment of Mentone in 1897, no settlements were in the county until the creation of Juanita in 1910, which was renamed to Porterville. The 1970 census recorded the county as the least-populated county in the United States.

Politics and government
Since the 1988 election, early voting has accounted for at least 13.11% of votes in the county, with early voting accounting for a majority of the votes in the 1994 election with 53.54%, 1998 election with 50%, 2000 election with 74.36%, 2006 election with 58.89%, and 2020 election with 68.18%. The lowest voter turnout since the 1988 election was in the 2018 election with 49% and the highest in the 1990 election with 85.71%. The county had the highest voter turnout in Texas in the 1986 election. At some points in the county's history, the county had more registered voters than residents and precincts closed early to deny people the ability to vote.

J. J. Combs was appointed as county judge by the county commission on September 6, 1893. Edna Reed Clayton DeWees served as sheriff in the county from 1946 to 1948, making her the first woman to be elected as a sheriff in Texas.

The county judge is the highest elected official in the county and the position has been held by Skeet Jones since 2007. The Creager family once had family members who served as county judge, postmaster, sheriff, tax assessor, and county commission member. The Joneses are a political family in the county with members of the family controlling the positions of judge, clerk, attorney, and constable. The Jones family is a ranching family who moved to the county when Elgin "Punk" Jones and Mary Belle Jones built their ranch in 1953. Punk served as the sheriff for 28 years and Mary Belle served as the chief appraiser. The top elected official of Loving County, Judge Skeet Jones, and three other individuals were arrested in 2022 for stealing livestock.

In 2022, Sheriff Chris Busse reported that a ranch with 11 registered voters, including county commissioner Ysidro Renteria, had no inhabitants since 2008.

Loving was one of only four counties in Texas to give a plurality of the vote to independent presidential candidate Ross Perot in 1992.

Economy
Three cattle businesses were in the county in 1887, with 12,100 cattle worth $96,800, and the county had a livestock value of $568,406 in 1900. Taxes were not collected in the area from 1893 to 1896. The Toyah-Bell Oil Company, created in 1921, became the first oil producer in the county later that year. Oil production in the area reached its height in 1931, with 1,233,801 barrels.

The county accounted for 0.057% of the wealth in Texas in 1970, and had no unemployment or any residents on welfare. The county had the sixth-highest unemployment rate in the country in 1986, with 29.7% unemployment. The Texas Almanac listed 15 ranches in the county in 1986–1987, with the average size being above 23,000 acres and being worth above an average of $4 million. The county has one of the highest per capita incomes in the United States due to oil revenue, with its residents having a per capita income of $32,505 in 1983, compared to the national average of $9,496. In 1986, taxes on oil and gas companies accounted for 99% of tax revenue in the county.

Loving County's economy is based almost entirely upon oil and gas production, ranching, and county services.

Education
No federal funding was ever given to schools in the county as of 1970, and its school was still racially segregated. In 1970, the elementary school had 30 students and three teachers, while the 17 high school students were educated in Winkler County. The elementary school in Mentone was closed in 1978, as the school only had two students and two teachers left and the county voted to consolidate into the Wink-Loving Independent School District. The county is zoned to Wink-Loving Independent School District and Odessa College.

In popular culture
"Loving County" is the name of a song written and performed by Charlie Robison. It appears on his 1998 album Life of the Party. In the novel Echo Burning by Lee Child, Jack Reacher passes through Loving County.