Ozona's First Water Well

Powell, a land surveyor, drilled near Johnson Draw, the Handbook of Texas says, and his agent, Joe Moss, sold the lots; early settlers planted pecan trees in the shallow soil. The post office opened on September 3, 1891, with Frank M. Boykin as postmaster. That year Mrs. J. W. Odom organized a union Sunday school, the first school opened and a frame courthouse went up by year's end. A Baptist church was organized in 1892 and a Church of Christ in 1895.

What the plaque says

(Drilled 1891) Focus for civic life in early Ozona. City founder E.M. Powell provided the water well equipped with 18-foot windmill, a water trough, and a small cypress tank. At first meeting of Crockett County Commissioners Court, July 22, 1891, under a liveoak near the well, the sheriff was instructed to operate the city water works. At the time, tents housed most homes and stores, and water was hauled from city well--often by children using toy wagons. In a few years homes had private wells and windmills. A modern system piped water throughout the city in the early 1900s. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Crockett County Museum — steps away
  Three floors of ranch-country history in Ozona, the only town in Crockett County, housed in a burned-out 1926 church rebuilt as a hospital and courthouse annex.
• Caverns of Sonora — 25 mi
  A show cave on a Sutton County ranch, opened in 1960 by cavers who wanted to stop the damage, and dense with helictites that grow sideways in every direction.

More markers nearby

• Crockett County — steps away
• Ozona Stockman, The — steps away
• Fort Lancaster, C.S.A. — steps away
• Ozona's Water System — 0.2 mi