Brownfield is a city in and the county seat of Terry County, Texas, United States. Its population was 8,936 at the 2020 census.
The town's early years saw the construction of essential structures, including the courthouse, school, and churches. Hill's Hotel became the first business, housing the inaugural post office. On June 28, 1904, Brownfield secured the county seat designation, narrowly defeating Gomez in an election. The Brownfield State Bank opened in 1905, serving multiple counties and parts of eastern New Mexico.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, Brownfield has an area of , 0.32% of which is covered by water.
Brownfield lies in the center of Terry County, in the southern portion of the South Plains and Llano Estacado. The city rests on a windblown deposit called the Blackwater Draw Formation, which is underlain by a thick layer of caliche, referred to locally as the "caprock". Beneath the caliche layer lies fluvial deposits called the Ogallala Formation, which contains a portion of the Ogallala Aquifer. The Caprock Escarpment, about 50 miles east, forms a precipitous drop of about and exposes various geologic layers. In early days, climbing the Caprock Escarpment was not easy for horse-drawn covered wagons.
The only terrain variation lies at the south end of the city, where Lost Draw carves a channel that runs across the entire county. Lost Draw formed over 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, when the climate of the area was much wetter. When the vast glaciers of the north retreated, they left numerous dry river channels crisscrossing the Llano Estacado. When settlers during the 1800s ventured across this area, they often went into these channels expecting to find water, but unless significant rains had occurred recently, their search was in vain, with many of the parties becoming "lost", hence the name, Lost Draw.
The most notable geographic feature of Brownfield is its red soil. The soil creates an almost iridescent red color during sunrise and sunset due to the high iron oxide content.
Climate
Brownfield lies in a semiarid temperate zone, where high winds and extreme temperature variations are the norm. The summers reach over for multiple consecutive days. The winters often fall below freezing for extended periods, but snow remains unusual due to very little precipitation forming in the winter.
The most significant time of the year for weather events starts in March and runs through September, when severe thunderstorms form on the Great Plains. Rain, winds, hail, and a few tornadoes are to be expected at this time of year. Late thunderstorms that produce hail are significantly harmful to the local economy, as it destroys the local cotton crop.
Economy
Cotton farming is the backbone of Brownfield. Cotton fields stretch for miles, and the harvest season in October has harvesters (locally called cotton strippers), module builders, and module trucks all over the county.
A haze develops over the city as the local cotton gins go to work stripping the cotton from the burr, separating the seeds, and then compressing the cotton into 500-lb bales. The haze is actually fine cotton dust, and sometimes small drifts develop in the street resembling snow mixed with red soil.
Peanut growing has found a toehold on the economy, as have vineyards. In recent years, grape growing has made Terry County a producer of wine grapes used as filler for inexpensive wines. Several wineries are now established in the county, which produce average-to-poor quality wine according to numerous reviews and wine review aggregator websites. Local farmers, ranchers, and landowners began growing grapes here as early as 1950, with a few new wineries near the city due to the repeal of fully dry county status in 2008. Several older and more notable wineries are in the Lubbock area, about 30 miles northeast.
Oil production continues to drop from its previous levels in the 1980s. According to current trends, Terry County and Brownfield will continue to decline significantly in oil production and importance in West Texas.
Wal-Mart chose to not renew their lease on their facility on the eastern edge of town, saying the town was not sufficiently economically viable for them to continue to operate. The Jim Rudd Unit, a state prison, opened in 1995.