Dimmit County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now, there are counties in Texas that got their names by accident, by compromise, or by somebody just pointing at a map. But Dimmit County, out here in the brush country southwest, got its name the old-fashioned way.

Somebody earned it. The man in question was Philip Dimmitt, a pioneer trader and a captain in the Texas Army, and he died in 1841. That's all the marker gives us about how he went, and sometimes that's enough.

A man who traded and soldiered on this frontier didn't need a long explanation. The county was created on February 1, 1858, which means the legislature honored his name seventeen years after he was gone. They spelled it with one t, by the way, Dimmit, where the man himself apparently used two.

History's got a sense of humor like that. Now, the county sat on the books for over two decades before it was ready to get to work. It wasn't organized until November 2, 1880.

You can picture all that time passing out here, the mesquite growing, the coyotes keeping their own counsel. When the county finally did organize itself proper, it named Carrizo Springs as the county seat, and Carrizo Springs holds that title to this day, sitting about three and a half miles north of where this marker stands along U.S. Highway 83.

A captain, a trader, a name on a map, and a county that took its sweet time showing up. That's Dimmit County for you.

What the marker says

Created February 1, 1858; organized November 2, 1880 Named in honor of Philip Dimmitt, a pioneer trader and captain in the Texas Army who died in 1841. Carrizo Springs, The County Seat (3.7 mi. N Carrizo Springs, US Hwy. 83)