DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little West Texas wind behind it. Yoakum County was created on August 21, 1876, carved right out of Bexar County — one of those great swaths of Texas that the legislature drew on a map long before anybody was really living there. And right away, this county has a distinction worth noting: it was named for Henderson Yoakum, a man who wrote a classic on early Texas history.
That makes Yoakum the only county in all of Texas named for an author. Think about that. Every other county named for a general, a politician, a land baron — and then there's this one, tipping its hat to a writer.
Now, the naming was one thing. The living there was another thing entirely. Indian activity and frontier hazards made growth slow.
For a long time, the only souls out on that land were itinerant buffalo hunters and scattered ranchers, and that held true well past the turn of the century. The county wasn't even organized until September 7, 1907 — more than thirty years after it was created on paper. By 1910 the population had climbed to 602, and that came about through the sale of state lands.
Six hundred and two people in a whole county. The land was not giving itself away easy. But then 1935 arrived, and with it the discovery of oil.
Industry came. People followed. The county that had waited so long finally had something pulling folks in rather than pushing them out.
And today, in Plains — the county seat — there stands a Bonus Shack, a cabin typical of the kind homesteaders actually used, and it serves now as a historical museum. The whole stubborn, slow-building, oil-struck story of Yoakum County, right there under one roof.
What the marker says
Created August 21, 1876, from Bexar County. Named for Henderson Yoakum, who wrote a classic on early Texas history. Only Texas county named for an author. Indian activity and frontier hazards made growth slow. Only itinerant buffalo hunters and scattered ranchers here until after 1900. County organized September 7, 1907. By 1910 population reached 602 as result of sale of state lands. Discovery of oil in 1935 brought industry and more people. A "Bonus Shack" typical of cabins used by homesteaders is used as a historical museum in Plains, the county seat. (1965)