{"id":8094,"date":"2023-09-19T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T16:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=8094"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:07:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:07:41","slug":"loving-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/loving-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving County, Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Loving County is a county in Texas, United States, about 77 miles west of Odessa on the New<br \/>\nMexico border. It had a population of 64 at the 2020 census, an estimated 52 by 2023, and covers<br \/>\n677 square miles (1,753 km2) centred near 31\u00b050\u2032N 103\u00b034\u2032W &mdash; making it, by a wide margin,<br \/>\nthe least populous county in the United States with a permanent population.<\/p>\n<p>Mentone is the county seat and the county&#8217;s only community; its postal code is 79754. The<br \/>\ncounty holds no incorporated cities or towns and runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 48301,<br \/>\nand it sits in Texas&#8217;s 23rd congressional district.<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in Loving County<\/h2>\n<p>Loving County has exactly one named place with any population: Mentone, an unincorporated<br \/>\ncommunity and census-designated place. Texas counties have no civil townships, so this table<br \/>\ncarries no Township column, and there is no CDP-versus-town distinction to make &mdash; Mentone<br \/>\nis the whole list.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Place<\/th>\n<th>Type<\/th>\n<th>Pop.<\/th>\n<th>ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Mentone<\/td>\n<td>CDP &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>22<\/td>\n<td>79754<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Three settlements once stood in the county but no longer register a population and carry no<br \/>\ncurrent addressing data: Hay Flat, Porterville and Woody. All three were early-1900s farming and<br \/>\nranching outposts that emptied out as Loving County&#8217;s population collapsed through the<br \/>\ntwentieth century; none appears in Census Bureau place data today, so they are not listed in the<br \/>\ntable above.<\/p>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>79754 &mdash; Mentone (the only ZIP code assigned anywhere in the county)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Every address in Loving County, including ranch headquarters and oilfield facilities scattered<br \/>\nacross its 669 square miles of land, is served by the single Mentone post office; there is no<br \/>\nsecond ZIP to split off, since the county has no other community.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>Loving County sits in the Trans-Pecos region of far West Texas, a stretch of flat-to-rolling<br \/>\ndesert grassland east of the Pecos River. Of its 677 square miles, 669 are land and 7.7 are<br \/>\nwater, about 1.1 percent &mdash; nearly all of it the Pecos River itself, which crosses the<br \/>\ncounty&#8217;s southwestern corner about 1.5 miles from Mentone. The terrain is otherwise dry<br \/>\nrangeland dotted with oil and gas well pads, with almost no surface water away from the river.<\/p>\n<p>Lea County, New Mexico lies to the north, Winkler County to the east, Ward County and Reeves<br \/>\nCounty to the south, and Reeves County again, along with Eddy County, New Mexico, to the west.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/lea-county\/\">Lea County<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/winkler-county\/\">Winkler County<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/ward-county\/\">Ward County<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/reeves-county\/\">Reeves County<\/a> and <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/eddy-county\/\">Eddy County<\/a> all border Loving directly.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>Loving County had a population of 64 at the 2020 census, down from 82 in 2010, and the latest<br \/>\nestimate puts the county near 52 residents. Mentone is the only community large enough to count<br \/>\nseparately, with 22 residents in 2020; the remainder live on scattered ranches and oilfield<br \/>\nsites across the rest of the county. Median household income runs $141,373 (2018&ndash;2022 ACS<br \/>\n5-year estimate), well above Texas&#8217;s 2023 statewide figure of $75,780, reflecting oil and<br \/>\ngas royalty and wage income concentrated among a very small resident base. Population density<br \/>\nworks out to well under one person per square mile of land, the lowest of any county in Texas.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Oil and gas production dominates Loving County&#8217;s economy; the county sits atop the<br \/>\nPermian Basin&#8217;s Delaware sub-basin, and well pads, pipelines and service roads cover much<br \/>\nof its rangeland. Cattle ranching, the county&#8217;s original industry, continues on the land<br \/>\naround the oilfields. County government is itself a major local employer relative to the tiny<br \/>\npopulation &mdash; the courthouse in Mentone houses the county judge, sheriff, tax office and<br \/>\nclerk. Loving County has no incorporated municipal government, no school building of its own (it<br \/>\nis zoned to the Wink-Loving Independent School District, based in neighboring Winkler County),<br \/>\nand no commercial retail beyond a single gas station and post office in Mentone.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>Texas organized Loving County on 26 February 1887, naming it for Oliver Loving, a cattle<br \/>\ndrover killed by a Comanche raiding party in 1867 while blazing the Goodnight&ndash;Loving Trail.<br \/>\nThe county was disorganized in 1897 after its population fell too low to sustain a functioning<br \/>\ngovernment, then reorganized in 1931 as oil exploration drew people back &mdash; the only Texas<br \/>\ncounty ever organized twice. Mentone was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967 as<br \/>\nthe &#8220;Smallest County Seat in Texas.&#8221; The two-story Loving County Courthouse, built in<br \/>\n1931 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, remains the county&#8217;s largest<br \/>\nbuilding. Mentone was also home to Edna Reed Clayton DeWees, the first woman elected sheriff in<br \/>\nTexas, who served from 1945 to 1947.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>No interstate highway crosses Loving County. State Highway 302 runs through Mentone, along<br \/>\nwith Ranch to Market Road 652 and Farm to Market Road 1933.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Odessa &mdash; about 77 miles east<\/li>\n<li>Pecos &mdash; about 22 miles south<\/li>\n<li>Kermit &mdash; about 30 miles southeast<\/li>\n<li>Carlsbad, New Mexico &mdash; about 45 miles northwest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Midland International Air &amp; Space Port, roughly 100 miles east of Mentone, is the nearest<br \/>\nmajor commercial airport. Loving County has no Amtrak service; the nearest station is in Alpine,<br \/>\nwell over 100 miles to the south.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is Loving County located?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt sits in far West Texas&#8217;s Trans-Pecos region, on the New Mexico border about 77 miles<br \/>\nwest of Odessa, bordered by Lea, Winkler, Ward, Reeves and Eddy counties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of Loving County?<\/strong><br \/>\n64 at the 2020 census, with a 2023 estimate near 52 &mdash; the smallest population of any<br \/>\ncounty in the United States.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is Loving County?<\/strong><br \/>\n677 square miles (1,753 km2), of which 669 square miles are land.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the county seat of Loving County?<\/strong><br \/>\nMentone, designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark as the smallest county seat in Texas, is<br \/>\nthe county seat and only community.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns and cities are in Loving County?<\/strong><br \/>\nNone are incorporated. Mentone is the county&#8217;s single named community; Hay Flat,<br \/>\nPorterville and Woody are former settlements with no population today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP code does Loving County use?<\/strong><br \/>\n79754, for Mentone, is the only ZIP code assigned anywhere in the county.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Loving County known for?<\/strong><br \/>\nBeing the least populous county in the United States, and the only Texas county ever organized<br \/>\ntwice, in 1887 and again in 1931.<\/p>\n<p>More counties in this state: <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/category\/texas\/\">Towns and villages in Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Loving County is a county in Texas, United States, about 77 miles west of Odessa on the New Mexico border. It had a population of 64 at the 2020 census, an estimated 52 by 2023, and covers 677 square miles (1,753 km2) centred near 31\u00b050\u2032N 103\u00b034\u2032W &mdash; making it, by a wide margin, the least [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Towns & Villages in Loving County, Texas","_seopress_titles_desc":"Loving County, Texas is the least populous US county \u2014 just Mentone, its 79754 ZIP, geography, history and 2020 census data.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-8094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-texas","tag-towns-and-cities","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9312,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094\/revisions\/9312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}