Editing Dimmit County, Texas (section)

==History==

===Native Americans===

[[Paleo-Indians]] artifacts indicate these people lived in Dimmit County as far back as 9200 BC.
The [[Prehistoric Southwestern cultural divisions|archaic period]] (6000 BC to AD 1000) up to the arrival of the Spanish brought increased [[hunter-gatherer]]s to the area. These Indians subsisted mostly on game, wild fruits, seeds, and roots.<ref>{{cite web|title=Native Peoples of the South Texas Plains During Early Historic Times |url=http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/peoples/index.html|work=Texas Beyond History|publisher=UT-Austin|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref> They carved tools from wood and stone, wove baskets, and sewed rabbitskin robes. They also made pottery and hunted with bows and arrows.<ref>{{cite web|title=Distant Connections|url=http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/prehistory/images/distant.html|work=Texas Beyond History|publisher=UT-Austin|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref> Their most effective weapon was the ''[[atlatl]]'', a throwing stick that greatly increased the deadliness of their spears. [[Coahuiltecan]] Indians native to now-Dimmit County were later squeezed out by [[Apache]] and [[Comanche]]. Hostile tribes harassed settlers, forcing some to pull up stakes.  [[Texas Rangers Division|Texas Rangers]] and local volunteers, as well as disease, ran the Indians out of the county by 1877.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wishhart|first=David J|title=Encyclopedia of the Great Plains|year=2004|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-4787-1|pages=345, 346|chapter=The Spanish and the Great Plains 1540–1821}}</ref><ref name="Dimmit County, Texas">{{cite web|last=Leffler|first=John|title=Dimmit County, Texas|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcd09|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref>

=== The Wild Horse Desert ===
The area between the [[Rio Grande]] and the [[Nueces River]], which included the county, became disputed territory known as the Wild Horse Desert, where neither the [[Republic of Texas]] nor the Mexican government had clear control. Ownership was in dispute until the [[Mexican–American War]]. The area became filled with lawless characters, who deterred settlers in the area. An agreement signed between Mexico and the United States in the 1930s put the liability of payments to the descendants of the original land grants on Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wranker|first=Ralph|title=The South Texas Area|url=http://www.taliesyn.com/ralph/stex.htm|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bartlett|first=Richard C|title=The Wild Horse Desert |year=1995|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-70835-8|pages=123–141|author2=Williamson, Leroy |author3=Sansom, Andrew |author4=Thornton III, Robert L |chapter=The South Texas Plains}}</ref>

===County established and settlements===

Dimmit County was officially established in 1858 from parts of [[Bexar County, Texas|Bexar]], [[Webb County, Texas|Webb]], [[Maverick County, Texas|Maverick]], and [[Uvalde County, Texas|Uvalde]] Counties. The county was organized in 1880. Carrizo Springs became the county seat.<ref name="Dimmit County, Texas"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Carrizo Springs, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/Carrizo-Springs-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref>

Early settlers found Dimmit County to be an abundant grassland with mesquite, oak, and ash trees and wildlife that included [[American bison|buffalo]], deer, turkeys, feral horses (mustangs), panthers, and javelinas. Artesian springs, bubbling up from a vast reservoir of underground water, fed into running streams that harbored giant catfish, crawfish, and mussels. Explorers found the area a good place to hunt mustangs, and to feed and water cattle.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nature's Harvest|url=http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/nature/index.html|work=Texas Beyond History|publisher=UT-Austin|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref>

Pioneering cattleman Levi English settled [[Carrizo Springs, Texas|Carrizo Springs]] in 1865 with a group of 15 families from [[Atascosa County, Texas|Atascosa County]]. Within two years, they were joined by a second group of settlers from [[Goliad County, Texas|Goliad County]]. Early dwellings were crude adobe structures or dugouts. In 1880, Levi English donated land for a county courthouse, schools, and churches in the town.<ref>{{cite web|last=Leffler|first=John|title=Levi English|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fen13|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Leffler|first=John|title=Carrizo Springs|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hfc02 |work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref>

Lawlessness, banditry, and in particular, cattle rustling from both sides of the Mexican border, pervaded until the 1880s. Marshal [[King Fisher|J. King Fisher]], managed to bring about a reduction in the lawlessness. King also staunchly enforced the "dry county" law once the residents voted to outlaw the sale of alcohol.<ref name="Dimmit County, Texas"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Adams|first=Paul|title=John King Fisher|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffi20|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref>

Dimmit County's first producing oil well was drilled in 1943. In 1980, Dimmit County farmers earned about $20 million for their crops, while about $60 million in oil and gas were produced.<ref name="Dimmit County, Texas"/>

Formation of the 1914 White Man's Primary Association was designed to exclude Mexican Americans from any meaningful participation in county politics. In the 1944 ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'' case, the [[United States Supreme Court]] found the White Primary to be unconstitutional.<ref>{{cite web|title=321 U.S. 649 Smith v. Allwright|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0321_0649_ZO.html|work=Decided: April 3, 1944|publisher=Cornell University Law School|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Long|first=Christopher|title=The White Man's Union Associations|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vcw02|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

===Water===
D.C. Frazier drilled the first artesian well, which produced gallons of water a minute, near Carrizo Springs in 1884.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Paul Schuster|title=Labor on the land: collected writings 1930–1970|year=1981|publisher=Arno Press|isbn=978-0-405-14208-6|page=83}}</ref> By 1900, about 25 artesian wells were flowing in the Carrizo Springs area, but most of the water was wasted, and very little was used for irrigation. Colonel J.S. Taylor introduced large-scale Bermuda onion and strawberry farming to the area, and was the first to use irrigation on a large scale in Dimmit County. In 1899, Taylor built a 30&nbsp;ft dam across the Nueces River to irrigate {{convert|2000|acre|km2}} of farmland. He also drilled a deep artesian well. By 1910, Taylor's methods were being imitated by a number of other developers and vegetable farmers.<ref>{{cite web|last=Cindy|first=Wilke|title=Onion Culture|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/afo01|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref> Irrigation helped make Dimmit County part of the [[Winter Garden Region|Texas Winter Garden region]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Odintz|first=Mark|title=Winter Garden Region|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ryw02|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 16, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>
By the 1920s, however, artesian water began to dry up. The necessity of installing expensive pumps drove many farmers out of business. By 1934, the [[United States Department of the Interior]] concluded that the existing water supply would not support substantial additional development. By 1965, only about {{convert|15000|acre|km2}} were being irrigated. Much of the land reverted to rangeland.<ref name="Dimmit County, Texas"/>

===Oil===
[[File:Austin Chalk stratigraphic column in Texas.png|thumb|300px|San Miguel and Olmos Formations [[stratigraphic column]]]]
The Big Wells oil field, east of [[Big Wells, Texas|Big Wells]], was discovered in 1969. The field produces from the [[Cretaceous]] San Miguel [[formation (geology)|Formation]] [[sandstone]] underlying the [[Olmos Formation]] sandstone. The field extends north into [[Zavala County, Texas|Zavala]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Layden|first1=R.L.|editor1-last=Braunstein|editor1-first=Jules|title=Big Wells Field, Dimmit and Zavala Counties, Texas, in North American Oil and Gas Fields|date=1976|publisher=The American Association of Petroleum Geologists|location=Tulsa|isbn=978-0891813002|pages=145–156}}</ref>

The [[Eagle Ford Group|Eagle Ford oil field]] was reported to be under development in 2011, with 3,000 wells projected to extract oil by [[hydraulic fracturing]] from tight shale formations. The oil play has improved business activity in the county, but raised fears regarding the adequacy of water supplies, as fracking requires injection of large quantities of water under pressure into wells to break surrounding rock.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|last=Krauss|first=Clifford|title=Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/business/energy-environment/28shale.html|access-date=May 28, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 27, 2011|quote=the hottest new oil play in the country}}</ref>