Moore County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Moore County. Out there on the high plains of the Texas Panhandle, where the wind has opinions and the horizon goes on forever.

The county was created in 1876, carved out of the Bexar Land District, and it was named in honor of Edwin W. Moore, born in 1810, died in 1865, commodore of the navy of the Republic of Texas. A man of rank, remembered in real estate.

That's a kind of immortality, I suppose. Now, the county existed on paper long before it existed in practice. It wasn't organized until July 5, 1892, and when it was, the town of Dumas became the county seat.

Dumas, named for the promoter of the townsite. Somebody believed in that place before most people even knew it was there. In the early days, if you needed to get somewhere or move something across Moore County, you were counting on stagecoaches and freighters.

That was the transportation. The county was thinly settled, and ranching was the main industry. That's the story of a lot of wide, quiet land: cattle, grass, sky, and patience.

But then came 1926. Oil and gas discoveries. The ground underneath Moore County had been holding something back, and suddenly the whole economic conversation changed.

A zinc smelter was built in 1936, the same year this marker came into the world, which gives you a sense of how fast things were moving. By 1991, when the inscription was last updated, the economy had grown into something Edwin W. Moore, commodore of a republic's navy, could never have pictured: petrochemicals, helium, oil, gas, cattle feeding, beef packing, ranching, grains, soybeans, and corn.

From stagecoach trails to helium. Moore County kept its name and changed just about everything else.

What the marker says

Created 1876 from Bexar Land District. Named in honor of Edwin W. Moore (1810-1865), commodore of the navy, Republic of Texas. County was organized July 5, 1892, with Dumas (named for promoter of the townsite) as county seat. Stagecoach and freighters furnished transportation in early days. The county was thinly settled; ranching was the main industry, prior to discoveries of oil and gas in 1926. A zinc smelter was built in 1936. Economy is now based on petrochemicals, helium, oil, gas, cattle feeding, beef packing, ranching, grains, soybeans and corn. (1991)