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Loving and losing in West Texas County seeks to keep people - all 67 03/14/2001 By Brenda Rodriguez / The Dallas Morning News For years residents have crept in and out of Loving County, a West Texas county with scant water, no hospital and not even a grocery store.
That's not surprising to some residents, and declining populations are not unusual in that part of Texas. Although Loving County's situation stands out.
The newly released 2000 census figures say that the population of Loving County, the least-populated in the state, is 67 people, a 37 percent decrease since 1990.
"It doesn't surprise me," said Richard Putnam, the county's sheriff. He is also the tax assessor. And the voting registrar. Most of the people who live in the county also work for the county.
"There's not much work here, and some of these people have moved out," Mr. Putnam said. "It's pretty quiet here."
At least one Loving County official was concerned about the dip in population.
"The 67 is quite alarming because I didn't realize we were down that much," said County Commissioner Skeet L. Jones.
Loving is one of more than 50 West Texas and Panhandle counties that lost population or were static in the 1990s, according to the census figures.
Shrinking populations in these areas have been a continuing trend, particularly in the Panhandle, said Dr. Steve Murdock, head of the Texas State Data Center at Texas A&M University.
The Panhandle is part of the Great Plains, which over decades has had slow population growth or population declines mainly because the economies in such areas – agriculture and, in Texas, oil – have experienced difficulties.
"Agriculture has been among the most efficient sectors of our economy in substituting technology for labor ... we need far fewer people to farm the same amount of land than we did 20 or 30 years ago. What that means, of course, is if you need fewer people to produce a product, then ... that means less workers, means less population," Dr. Murdock said.
Fighting to maintain rural populations and rural communities has been a long-term struggle for rural Texas, as well as rural America, Dr. Murdock said. Jobs need to be created to bring people into these areas, or keep them there, he said.
"That's not because they don't like the areas where they were raised. They'd like to live there. It's because there's not the employment opportunities that are required for them, and so what has to happen is the creation of the kind of jobs that can maintain residents in the area and can bring new residents to the area," Dr. Murdock said. "That's economic development."
Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, is pushing legislation to create the Office of Rural Community Affairs, to help revitalize rural areas like Loving County. The office would look after "rural Texas so that we can maintain a quality of life out there that would not encourage our people to move to the big cities."
The Office of Rural Community Affairs would function as a clearinghouse for any problems rural communities would encounter, he said.
"Whether that be with the water systems, sewer systems, or economic development, all those kinds of things," Mr. Chisum said. "Then they will be able to assist these rural communities in either creating jobs and keeping their infrastructure in shape so that they can attract new business in there."
Some Loving County residents said they would welcome a more diversified economic resource, other than the county and oil fields, to attract residents.
"There is nothing here," said Beverly Hanson, the district county clerk.
But regardless of the things Loving County doesn't have, Ms. Hanson said, it is a peaceful community, where everybody knows everybody. She, too, wasn't surprised by the decrease in its population.
"We have a good community," she said. "We all might squabble during the week, but if there is a death or a wedding or something, everyone pitches in."
Last year, National Geographic magazine declared the county's seat and only town, Mentone, the "soul of Texas." |
