DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Mentone, out there in Loving County. Now, Texas is a big state. You know that.
I know that. Everybody knows that. But somewhere in all that bigness, there has got to be a smallest.
And friend, Loving County is it — last organized county in Texas, most sparsely populated county in Texas, both in total number of souls and per square mile. And sitting right in the middle of all that magnificent emptiness is Mentone, the smallest county seat in the entire state of Texas. Mentone is the only town in Loving County.
The only one. Not the biggest — the only one. Established in 1931, it takes its name from an earlier town sitting about ten miles to the north.
And that earlier town? Legend has it a French surveyor-prospector named it after his home on the Riviera. A French prospector, out in the West Texas scrub, looking around at the dust and the distance, and thinking — yes, this reminds me of the Riviera.
That is either profound homesickness or a truly remarkable imagination. The marker calls it legend, and I will leave it right there where the marker left it. Now, Mentone in 1967 had a population of forty-two people.
Forty-two. And here is where the story gets interesting, because Mentone is a county seat without a water system. Water is hauled in.
No water system, no bank, no doctor, no hospital, no newspaper, no lawyer, no civic club, and — here is the one that'll stop you cold — no cemetery. In the entire county of Loving, there are only two recorded graves. Two.
Some Indian skeletons and artifacts have been found out there in that spare and ancient land. And the land itself keeps busy — oil country, farming country, cattle country. Forty-two people.
No water from the ground. Two graves in the whole county. The smallest county seat in Texas, named — if the legend holds — after a place on the French Riviera by a man who was a long, long way from home.
Out in Loving County, the land doesn't give up much. But what it gives up, it keeps a good long while.
What the marker says
Smallest County Seat in Texas Mentone Only town in Loving County -- last organized, most sparsely populated (both in total and per square mile) county in Texas. Established 1931 and named for an earlier town (10 miles north) which legend says was named by a French surveyor-prospector after his home on the Riviera. With population of 42, Mentone has no water system. (Water is hauled in.) Nor does it have a bank, doctor, hospital, newspaper, lawyer, civic club or cemetery. There are only two recorded graves in county. Some Indian skeletons, artifacts are found. Oil, farming, cattle country. (1967)