Ozona's First Water Well

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Now, picture West Texas in 1891, when Ozona was still finding its feet, and most of what passed for homes and storefronts were tents. Not buildings, not even cabins.

Tents. And in the middle of all that, one man stepped up and said, this place is going to need water. That man was E.M.

Powell, city founder, and what he provided wasn't just a hole in the ground. He put in a water well, an eighteen-foot windmill, a water trough, and a small cypress tank. That windmill turning in the West Texas wind became something more than just machinery.

It became the focus for civic life in early Ozona. The place where a town began to believe in itself. Now here's the part that gets me every time.

On July 22, 1891, the Crockett County Commissioners Court held its very first meeting. And where did they gather? Not in a courthouse, there wasn't one yet.

They gathered under a liveoak tree, right there near that well. And one of the first orders of business, the sheriff was instructed to operate the city water works. The sheriff.

Out here, everybody wore more than one hat. So how did the water actually get to the people? Well, somebody had to haul it.

And that job fell to whoever was available, and often as not, that meant children. Children hauling water from that city well, using toy wagons. Let that picture sit with you a moment.

The whole town's water supply, moving through the streets in little wagons pulled by kids. That's not a hardship story exactly, that's just how a town gets built. Within a few years, homes started putting in private wells and windmills of their own.

And then, in the early nineteen hundreds, a modern system came along and piped water throughout the city. Progress has a way of making the old firsts invisible. But that first well, that windmill, that liveoak tree where a county got its government started, those things didn't just quench a thirst.

They gave Ozona something to stand on.

What the marker says

(Drilled 1891) Focus for civic life in early Ozona. City founder E.M. Powell provided the water well equipped with 18-foot windmill, a water trough, and a small cypress tank. At first meeting of Crockett County Commissioners Court, July 22, 1891, under a liveoak near the well, the sheriff was instructed to operate the city water works. At the time, tents housed most homes and stores, and water was hauled from city well--often by children using toy wagons. In a few years homes had private wells and windmills. A modern system piped water throughout the city in the early 1900s. (1971)