Balmorhea: History and Development of a Texas Town
Revised by: Laurie E. Jasinski
Published: 1952
Updated: August 21, 2025
Balmorhea is on State Highway 17 about one mile southwest of Brogado in southwestern Reeves County. Indian and Mexican settlers farmed around the area from early times, taking advantage of the good supply of water from nearby San Solomon Springs. The town was laid out in 1906 in the center of a 14,000-acre tract watered by the springs. Balmorhea was named for the land developers who sent their agent, Ira M. Cole, to file the plat for the townsite. Their names were E. D. Balcom, H. R. Morrow, Joe Rhea, and John Rhea, and they organized the Toyah Valley Irrigation Company to supervise water usage. A public school was organized, and a post office opened in 1908. About 1910 the Pecos Valley Southern Railway laid its tracks from Pecos to Toyahvale through Balmorhea, and a hotel was built in the town. In 1925 fifty people were reported living in Balmorhea, and by 1927 that number increased to 500. A bank opened in 1928 and operated until 1933. The population reached 1,220 in the 1930s, and the number of businesses bounced between twenty-five and thirty-three. A gradual decline began after World War II. Throughout the 1950s and most of the 1960s the population was around 600, and the number of businesses declined to nineteen. In 1961 the town was incorporated. In 1968 Balmorhea had a population of 1,009 and thirty businesses. By 1988 it had four businesses and a population of 528. The 1990 United States census set the population of Balmorhea at 765. In 2000 the population dropped to 527. By 2020 that number had fallen to 408. The community had a mayor and city council, several churches, a public library, and local education was operated under the Balmorhea Independent School District. A number of businesses catered to tourism as well as trucking. Balmorhea State Park is located at San Solomon Springs.
Bibliography:
City of Balmorhea (https://cityofbalmorhea.myruralwater.com/), accessed August 20, 2025. Alton Hughes, Pecos: A History of the Pioneer West (Seagraves, Texas: Pioneer, 1978). Pecos County Historical Commission, Pecos County History (2 vols., Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1984).
Places:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Julia Cauble Smith Revised by Laurie E. Jasinski, “Balmorhea, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/balmorhea-tx.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
HLB04
All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
- 1952
- August 21, 2025
