200px|right|thumb|Road to Castle Gap between [[Crane, Texas|Crane and McCamey, Texas]]
200px|right|thumb|Graves at Crane County Cemetery off [[U.S. Route 385]]
Crane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 4,675. 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.
History
Native Americans
Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the area. Later Indian tribes included Comanches, Lipan Apache, and Kiowa.
County establishment and growth
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.
Church and 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, though at times the rates could be as high as $5.00 a barrel. A barrel of drinking water would typically last a month if used judiciously, and barrels of nonpotable water were available for cleaning and washing purposes. Crane City was incorporated in the early 1930s, and with that came state funds for the building of a city water system.
At the same time, the Texas Rangers were working to clean up oil towns, and the population in Crane began to include more families. As such, numerous raids by law enforcement closed the red light district centered on Alford Street.
By the beginning of 1991, almost 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.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (0.08%) is covered by water.
Major highways
- 25px U.S. Highway 385
- 20px State Highway 329
Adjacent counties
- Ector County (north)
- Upton County (east)
- Crockett County (south)
- Pecos County (south)
- Ward County (west)