Editing Carson County, Texas (section)

==History==

===Native Americans===

[[Prehistory|Prehistoric]] [[hunter-gatherer]]s were the first inhabitants, followed by the [[Plains Apache]]. Modern [[Apache]] tribes followed them and were displaced by [[Comanches]]. The Comanches were defeated by the [[United States Army]] in the [[Red River War]] of 1874.<ref name="Carson County, Texas">{{cite web|last=Abbe|first=Donald R|title=Carson County, Texas|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcc06|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 16, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref>

===Early explorations===

[[Spain|Spanish]] [[conquistador]] [[Francisco Vásquez de Coronado]] explored the [[Llano Estacado]] in 1541.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lourie|first=Peter|title=On the Texas Trail of Cabeza De Vaca|year=2008|publisher=Boyds Mills Press|isbn=978-1-59078-492-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/ontexastrailofca00lour_0/page/46 46]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ontexastrailofca00lour_0/page/46}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Donoghue|first=David|title=Francisco Vázquez de Coronado|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fvawt|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 16, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

===County established and growth===

Carson County was established in 1876 from [[Bexar County, Texas|Bexar County]]. The county was organized in 1888. Panhandle, the only town at the time, became the county seat.<ref>{{cite web|title=Panhandle, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/PanhandleTexas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref>

Ranching began to be established in the county in the 1880s. The [[JA Ranch]] encompassed over a million acres (4,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) within six adjoining counties. Richard E. McNalty established the Turkey Track Ranch in 1878.<ref>{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=H Allen|title=Turkey Track Ranch|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/apt08|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 16, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>
One of the early failed attempts came in 1882 when [[Charles G. Francklyn]] purchased {{convert|637440|acre|km2}} of railroad lands in adjoining counties to form the [[Francklyn Land and Cattle Company]]. The lands were later sold to the White Deer Lands Trust of British bondholders in 1886 and 1887.<ref>{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=H. Allen|title=Francklyn Land and Cattle Company|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dsf02|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 16, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Duncan Ranch History|url=http://www.cattlenet.com/history.htm|publisher=The Duncan Ranch|access-date=December 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708124144/http://www.cattlenet.com/history.htm|archive-date=July 8, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Railroads began to reach the county by 1886 when the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]] subsidiary Southern Kansas Railway extended the line into Texas, making Panhandle City a railhead in 1888. In 1889, the [[Fort Worth and Denver Railway]] linked Panhandle City with [[Washburn, Texas|Washburn]] in [[Armstrong County, Texas|Armstrong County]]. In 1904, the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific|Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf]] bought the line.   In 1908, the Southern Kansas of Texas extended its line from Panhandle City to Amarillo, thus making the Kansas-Texas-New Mexico line a major transcontinental route. The [[Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad|Choctaw, Oklahoma and Texas Railroad]] built across the southern edge of the county.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Santa Fe All The Way!|url=http://www.american-rails.com/atchison-topeka-and-santa-fe.html|publisher=American-Rails.com|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Route of the Rockets!|url=http://www.american-rails.com/chicago-rock-island-and-pacific.html|publisher=American-Rails.com|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref>

Pumping underground water with windmills resolved the issue of bringing water from [[Roberts County, Texas|Roberts County]] via the railroad.<ref>{{cite web|title=Windmills|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/ClayCoppedge/Windmills.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref>

[[White Deer, Texas|White Deer]] in 1909 became home to [[Polish people|Polish]] Catholic immigrants, who had first settled [[Panna Maria, Texas|Panna Maria]] in [[Karnes County, Texas|Karnes County]]  before migrating to Carson County.<ref>{{cite web|title=White Deer, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/WhiteDeerTexas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Panna Maria, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGhostTowns/PannaMariaTexas/PannaMariaTx.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref>

Experimental drilling by [[Gulf Oil|Gulf Oil Corporation]] led to the county's, and the Panhandle's, first oil and gas production in late 1921. Borger field was discovered in 1925, sparking much oil exploration and production of the Panhandle area. By the end of 2000, more than {{convert|178398900|oilbbl}} of petroleum had been produced from county lands.<ref>{{cite book|last=Warner|first=C A|title=Texas Oil & Gas Since 1543|year=2007|publisher=Copano Bay Press|isbn=978-0-9767799-5-7|author2=Thompson, Ernest O|page=256}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Borger, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Borger/borger.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 16, 2010}}</ref>

In September 1942, the [[Pantex|Pantex Ordnance Plant]] was built on {{convert|16076|acre|km2}} of southwestern Carson County land, to pack and load shells and bombs in support of the [[World War II]] effort. Operations ceased August 1945, and in 1949, the site was sold to [[Texas Tech University at Amarillo]] for agricultural experimentation. Pantex reopened in 1951 as a nuclear weapons assembly plant. In 1960, Pantex began high-explosives development in support of the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] in California. Pantex has a long-term mission to safely and securely maintain the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile and dismantle weapons retired by the military.<ref>{{cite book|last=Makhijani|first=Arjun|title=Nuclear Wastelands: A Global Guide to Nuclear Weapons Production and Its Health and Environmental Effects|year=2000|publisher=The MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-63204-1|pages=233–239|author2=Hu, Howard |author3=Yih, Katherine }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Norris|first=Robert S|title=Pantex Lays Nukes to Rest|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|date=October 1992|pages=48, 49}}</ref>