Brewster County

Brewster covers 6,169 square miles of mostly rough, mountainous ground, rising from 1,700 feet to 7,825 at Emory Peak, the tenth-highest point in Texas. Ocotillo, lechuguilla and sotol hold the low desert, grasslands fill the mountain basins, and Douglas fir, aspen and Arizona cypress grow on the high slopes. Pronghorn, desert bighorn, black bear and the Colima warbler live here. Rain averages twelve inches a year, and less than 1 percent of the land counts as prime farmland.

What the plaque says

Brewster County formed from Presidio County. Created February 2, 1887. In 1897 the territory of Buchel and Foley counties was added to Brewster. Named for Henry Percy Brewster 1816-1884 soldier and statesman, a hero of San Jacinto. Murphyville county seat, 1887, name changed to Alpine, 1889. Largest county in area in the state.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Big Bend — 7.1 mi
  The museum of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, back since 2007 in its native-stone building of 1937.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 22 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• Marfa Lights Viewing Area — 22 mi
  The roadside viewing area on US 90 nine miles east of Marfa, where people gather after dark to watch the horizon toward the Chinati Mountains for the Marfa lights.
• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 26 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.

More markers nearby

• Ancient Rocks Boundary — steps away
• Texas Confederate General Lawrence "Sul" Ross — 7.1 mi
• Burgess' Water Hole — 7.5 mi
• Texas Confederate Colonel Henry P. Brewster (1816-1884) — 7.8 mi