Presidio County

Presidio County covers 3,857 square miles and runs 135 miles along the Rio Grande. Grama grasslands on the Marfa Plateau feed the Highland Herefords, while volcanic ranges climb to 7,728 feet. Spring-fed Capote Falls, with a drop of 175 feet, is the highest waterfall in Texas, and the cliffs of the Candelaria Rimrock, or Sierra Vieja, run parallel to the river above the desert floor. The county has no permanent streams; rain, about twelve inches a year, falls mostly in summer. Silver mining carried the economy from the 1880s to the 1940s.

What the plaque says

Presidio County Formed from Bexar County created January 3, 1850, organized March 13, 1875. So named for the early "Fortress garrisoned by soldiers." Erected for the protection of the Big Bend missions. County seat Fort Davis, 1875, Marfa, since 1885. (1936)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Presidio County Courthouse — 1.0 mi
  Marfa's domed courthouse of 1886, a Second Empire landmark finished in time for a New Year's ball, its statue of Justice still missing the scales someone shot away.
• Chinati Foundation — 1.5 mi
  Donald Judd's museum on the grounds of old Fort D. A. Russell in Marfa, where art, buildings and land are meant to be seen together, by guided tour.
• Marfa Lights Viewing Area — 7.7 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.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 18 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.

More markers nearby

• Marfa Stockyards — 0.3 mi
• Fort D.A. Russell — 1.2 mi
• James Buchanan Gillett — 2.0 mi
• William Edward Russell — 2.0 mi