Crane County, Texas

Crane County, Texas
Crane County Courthouse in Crane
Location in the U.S. state of Texas
Texas's location in the U.S.
Founded	1927
Named for	William Carey Crane
Seat	Crane
Largest city	Crane
Area
• Total	786 sq mi (2,036 km2)
• Land	785 sq mi (2,033 km2)
• Water	0.7 sq mi (2 km2), 0.08%
Population
• (2010)	4,375
• Density	5.6/sq mi (2/km²)
Congressional district	23rd
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.co.crane.tx.us

Crane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 4,375. The county seat is Crane. The county was created in 1887 and later organized in 1927. It was named for William Carey Crane, a president of Southern Baptist affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the area. Later Indian tribes included Comanches, Lipan Apache, and Kiowa.

Crane County was formed in 1887 from Tom Green County, and named after William Carey Crane, former president of Baylor University. Settlement came years later, and the county was not organized until 1927. In 1900, the United States census enumerated only 51 people and 12 ranches in the county. As late as 1918, the county had no roads.

In 1925, Church & Fields Exploration Company obtained a permit late in 1925 to drill for oil. The first well came in March 1926.

By 1927, an estimated 6,000 people were in the county, with 4,500 of them within the city of Crane. Water was trucked in and brought from $1.00 to $2.25 a barrel. By the beginning of 1991, almost 1,552,324,000 barrels (246,799,800 m³) of oil had been produced in the county since discovery in 1926.

County history is preserved in the Museum of the Desert Southwest, which opened in Crane in 1980.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 786 square miles (2,040 km²), of which 785 square miles (2,030 km²) is land and 0.7 square miles (1.8 km²) (0.08%) is water.