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Val Verde county office

Val Verde County Office

Val Verde County was named after a Civil War battle. The name Val Verde means green valley. The county was created in 1885 from a land area which was divided into counties forming Crockett, Kinney, Pecos and Val Verde County. The city of Del Rio was first settled around 1807 by a Catholic Priest establishing a mission along San Felipe Creek. Shortly this settlement was abandoned due to hostile Indians and the area was unoccupied until 1868 when a farming settlement appeared along the banks of the San Felipe Creek. The settlement was called San Felipe. The name changed to Del Rio in 1885 when the County was organized and Del Rio became the county seat.

The county is composed of 3,170.7 square miles. It is composed of rolling, hilly and brushy type country. The Devils, Pecos, and Rio Grande rivers flow through the county into Amistad Reservoir located on the southern tip of the county.

Average yearly rainfall in the county is 18.2 inches. The weather is rather mild with very mild winters and hot summer temperatures. The land is suited for and the agriculture production consists mainly of sheep, goat and cattle raising. Hunting operations are of major economical importance in the county.

The county population according to the 1990 census is 41,790 people with 12.3 persons per square mile. There are 70.5% Hispanics, 26.6% white, 2% black, .6% Asian and .3% native Americans in the county. The median family income is $19,688 annually.

Recreation in the county includes the gateway to Mexico, deer hunting, fishing, Amistad lake activities, two state parks, Judge Roy Bean Center at Langtry, and two golf courses. Other towns or centers in the county include Comstock, Langtry, Juno, Pandale, Carta Valley and Loma Alta.

For more information about Val Verde County, or any of Texas’ 254 counties, you can access the following: the Texas Almanac 1996-1997; web sites http://govinfo.library.orst.edu/cgi-bin/bfact and http://monarch.tamu.edu; and the article titled, “Understanding Your Local Economy…County Data Set” by Drs. Dennis U. Fisher and Judith I. Stellmann, Department of Agricultural Economics, 340 Blocker Building, College Station, TX 77843-2124.