Terrell County, Texas
| Terrell County, Texas | |
|---|---|
 Location in the U.S. state of Texas |
|
 Texas's location in the U.S. |
|
| Founded | 1905 |
| Named for | Alexander W. Terrell |
| Seat | Sanderson |
| Largest community | Sanderson |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2,358 sq mi (6,107 km2) |
| • Land | 2,358 sq mi (6,107 km2) |
| • Water | 0.04 sq mi (0 km2), 0% |
| Population (est.) | |
| • (2015) | 837 |
| • Density | 0.4/sq mi (0/km²) |
| Congressional district | 23rd |
| Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 |
| Website | www |
Terrell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 984, making it the eighth-least populous county in Texas, and the 37th-least populous county in the nation. Its county seat is the census-designated place of Sanderson; there are no incorporated municipalities in the county. The county was named for Alexander W. Terrell, a Texas state senator.
Terrell County is one of the nine counties that comprise the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. It is the setting for Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men, and the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name.
Evidence of the indigenous peoples of Terrell County are found on the county’s various ranches – arrowheads, tools, burned-rock middens, caves, and shelters containing Indian pictographs. Pieces of reed sandals, baskets, and evidence of burials have been found in the caves. The most pictographs are on cliff walls above Myers Spring near Dryden, overpainting giving to the theory that several Indian cultures were involved.
Capt. José de Berroterán in 1729 commanded an expedition on behalf of Spain to explore from Mission San Juan Bautista up the Rio Grande to the mouth of the Rio Conchos. Berroterán crossed the southern border, where at a spring near Dryden, legend has it that he placed a large wooden cross. Six years later, another Spaniard, Blas María de la Garza Falcón, found the cross while conducting an expedition in the area and named the spot Santa Cruz de Maya. Captain Samuel Highsmith, under the command of John Coffee Hays, crossed the county in 1848 in an ill-fated expedition to open a road from San Antonio to El Paso. In 1851 Army officer and geographer Lt. Nathaniel Michler, working under Major William H. Emory, mapped this portion of the boundary between Mexico and the United States. Under Lt. William Echols in 1859, caravans of the U.S. Camel Corps crossed the county searching for a shorter route to Fort Davis.
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