Hudspeth County

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Hudspeth County, and I'll give it to you straight. Out here in far West Texas, where the land runs wide and the sky runs wider, Hudspeth County didn't just appear on the map. It was carved.

Carved right out of El Paso County, created on February 16, 1917, and then organized a few months later on August 25, 1917. Two dates, one county, and a whole lot of open range between them. Now, they named it after a man.

Claude Benton Hudspeth, born in 1877, a native Texan. And not the kind of man who sat still. He held larger ranching interests, which out here means he understood the land the way most people understand their own backyard, maybe better.

But ranching wasn't the whole of it. He served in the Texas Legislature. Then he went further, all the way to the United States Congress.

A man who knew cattle and knew chambers, and apparently left enough of a mark that when they needed a name for this big, quiet stretch of West Texas, his was the one they reached for. Sierra Blanca sits as the county seat, anchoring it all, a small town holding down the center of a very large county. That's Hudspeth County.

Named for a rancher, a legislator, a congressman. Born out of El Paso County in 1917, and still out here, still wide, still quiet, still itself.

What the marker says

Formed from El Paso County; created February 16, 1917, organized August 25, 1917. Named in honor of Claude Benton Hudspeth born in 1877. A native Texan, holder of larger ranching interests, member of the Texas Legislature and the United States Congress. Sierra Blanca, the county seat.