Editing Garza County, Texas (section)

==History==
[[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] were the first inhabitants of the area, with evidence from around 2000 BC. Later inhabitants were the [[Kiowa]] and [[Comanche]].<ref name="Garza County, Texas">{{cite web|last=Leffler|first=John|title=Garza County, Texas|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcg03|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

In 1875, W. C. Young of [[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]] and [[Irish people|Irishman]] Ben Galbraith of Illinois established the beginnings of the Curry Comb Ranch in the northwestern part of Garza County.<ref>{{cite web|last=Holden|first=William Curry|title=Curry Comb Ranch|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/apc06|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|author-link=William Curry Holden|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref>

Garza County was formed in 1876 from [[Bexar County, Texas|Bexar County]], and named for the prominent Bexar County family of [[José Antonio de la Garza]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Orozco |first=Cynthia E |title=José Antonio de la Garza|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgaac|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 15, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA135 | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=135}}</ref>

By 1880, the county census count was 36 people.<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/>  The Square and Compass Ranch was started 2 years later by the [[Nave & McCord Mercantile Company|Nave and McCord Cattle Company]]. They put up the first [[barbed wire|barbed-wire]] fence in 1884.<ref>{{cite web|last=Holden|first=William Curry|title=Square and Compass Ranch|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/aps06|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>  That same year, OS Ranch was founded by brothers Andrew J. and Frank M. Long of [[Lexington, Kentucky]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Woolley|first=Bryan|title=Texas Road Trip|year=2004|publisher=Texas Christian University Press|isbn=978-0-87565-291-7|pages=25–36|chapter=Pack Rat}}</ref>
The county's population reached 185 persons by the last year of the 19th century.<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/> [[Post, Texas|Post]] was founded in 1907 as a utopian venture by, and named for, cereal king [[C.W. Post]].<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Post, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Post/Post_Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 17, 2010}}</ref>  From 1909 to 1913, C.W. Post built a cotton gin and a cotton mill, and attempted to improve agriculture production through rainmaking, involving the heavy use of explosives fired from kites and towers along the rim of the [[Caprock Escarpment]].<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Pearce|first=William M|title=Charles William Post|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpo26|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

In 1926, oil was discovered in the county.<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/><ref>{{cite journal|title=Alumni Notes|journal=The Alcalde|date=Sep–Oct 1985|page=52}}</ref>  Quanah and Bryan Maxey discovered a 16-foot-long tusk of a prehistoric imperial [[mammoth]] in 1934. This tusk is currently located in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/>

In 1957, a [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] Indian site was recorded at Cowhead Mesa by Emmet Shedd of Post.<ref name="Cowhead Mesa">{{cite web|last=Howard|first=Margaret Ann|title=Cowhead Mesa|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbc06|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 17, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref> In 1960–1965, South Plains Archaeological Society excavations of Cowhead Mesa found artifacts to date inhabitation back to 2000 BC.<ref name="Cowhead Mesa"/>

The most important businesses in the county by 1980 were agribusiness, oil and gas extraction, and textile mills.<ref name="Garza County, Texas"/>