Sierra Blanca owes its existence to a railroad race. Collis Huntington's Southern Pacific had built east from the Pacific, and Jay Gould's Texas and Pacific had built west from central Texas. By November 25, 1881, the two crews were within ten miles of each other, and neither meant to give way. The next day Huntington and Gould agreed to a compromise, and on December 15 Gould drove a silver spike joining the two roads seven miles southeast of Sierra Blanca Mountain. Transcontinental service began the next day, and Sierra Blanca grew up as the railhead for the ranches around it.
Hudspeth County was carved out of eastern El Paso County in February 1917 and named for state senator Claude Benton Hudspeth of El Paso. Sierra Blanca became the seat, and the county built its courthouse of adobe, the sun-dried earth brick of the borderlands. It is the only courthouse in Texas made entirely of adobe.
The county had only 962 people in 1920, and the courthouse still serves a county of ranches and very few people. Sierra Blanca sits on Interstate 10 eighty miles southeast of El Paso, and the courthouse is a short drive off the highway. It is a working county building, so look at it from outside unless you have business there.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour