Forty miles south of Hobbs is the town of Jal. Jal is located in the far southeast corner of
New Mexico. If one were to start at the principal intersection in Jal, which is State Highway 18 and Kansas Avenue, and drive east, it is only 7 1/2 miles to the Texas border. If one were to drive south from this point, it is only 9.1 miles to the Texas border. From the Jal city limits, it is only
6 1/2 miles, in both directions, to the Texas border.
Even though Jal sits at a fairly lofty elevation of 3,030 feet above sea level, it is the lowest town in New Mexico in elevation. It is not the lowest point in New Mexico, but it is the lowest town. The lowest point is farther west, south of Carlsbad, on the shore of Red Bluff Lake at the Texas border. The elevation at that point is 2,817 feet above sea level. So, as you can see, New Mexico is a very lofty state when it comes to elevation when the lowest town in the state is more than 3,000 feet above sea level. The only two states with higher average elevations than New Mexico are Colorado and Wyoming and the average elevation in Wyoming is only about 50 feet higher than the average elevation in New Mexico.
There is some debate over how Jal got its name. It is someone's initials, but whose? More importantly, JAL was a well known cattle brand before the town even existed. One candidate for the town's name is John A. Lynch. No one seems to know his middle name, just the initial. He spent some time in this area in the 1800s, but he then moved on so I doubt that he knew about the existence of the town that sprang up on the spot that bore his initials. John A. Lynch does not seem like he had much, if anything, to do with the establishment of the town or the cattle brand.
The next candidate is John Albert Lawrence. He settled in this area and started a small cattle ranch. He seems to be the one who started the JAL cattle brand and, in 1881, he sold the brand to the Cowden Cattle Company. Interestingly, the three Cowden brothers were names James, Amos and Liddon. There's those JAL initials again. The Cowden Brothers established their ranch headquarters along Monument Draw, a dry stream channel that runs five miles east of the current townsite of Jal. They continued using the JAL cattle brand and, it is claimed, they registered the brand in 1897. However, there seems to be some problems with this account also. The town is named for the cattle brand and I believe John Albert Lawrence or the Cowden Brothers are the most likely sources of the town's unusual name. Evidently, historians have not been able to pinpoint the exact origin of the town's name.
The name is phonetic. Some people pronounce it "JAIL" or "JALL." Or, since it is in
New Mexico, many people assume that the "J" has an "H" sound, as is the case in Spanish words, so they pronounce the town's name "HALL" or "HAL." Interesting how a name that only has 3 letters in it gets mispronounced by so many people.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
A Modern Day Boomtown
In my neck of the woods, there is an oil boom going on and it has led to some growth in a normally economically depressed area, but the oil boom around here pales in comparison to what is going on in Hobbs, New Mexico, located near the southeast corner of that state.
Hobbs is located 3 miles from the Texas border, if one were to drive east, and 49 miles from the Texas border if one were to drive south.
Hobbs exploded into prominence in 1928 when the Discovery Well gushed forth black gold. What was an isolated town of a few hundred people suddenly exploded into a town of about 16,000 people and a rival town called New Hobbs, located immediately to the south of Hobbs and east of the gusher, sprang into existence and, within two years, had about 9,000 people.
When the Discovery Well spewed forth on the Will Terry Ranch near Hobbs on June 13, 1928, the town was little more than a general merchandise store, a post office and a small school. The town's prospects for the future looked bleak. When the well first started gushing, it had to be capped because there was no infrastructure with which to transport the oil. There were no pipelines, no storage tanks, no railroad and also no roads to speak of except for primitive dirt tracks that all petered out within a few miles of the town. Very quickly all of these things were put in place and Hobbs and New Hobbs were declared the two fastest growing cities in the United States in the 1930 Census.
Hobbs and New Hobbs merged into one town in 1938 and, ever since then, the town's fortunes have waxed and waned with the oil industry. The economy of Hobbs had been inextricably linked to the oil industry ever since the gusher came in. There is some agriculture in the area, mostly east of Hobbs in Texas, but not much. Hobbs is basically a one-industry town, although that is slowly changing as city leaders are working to diversify its economy.
The population of Hobbs has been as high as 33,000, but, for the most part, it has hovered in the 26,000 to 29,000 range since the 1940s--until now.
The first time I ever saw Hobbs was in the early 1980s on my way to summer camp near
Santa Fe. I remember saying to myself "Wow, what a depressed-looking town." This was during the oil bust of the 1980s that led to the biggest bank foreclosure in American history, the
Midland National Bank in Midland, Texas, which is a 94 mile drive from Hobbs.
The last 2 times I was in Hobbs, which were both in 2011, I could hardly believe my eyes!
From the 2000 Census to the 2010 Census, the population had jumped from 28,657 to 34,122. In the two years since the last Census was enumerated, the population has risen to about 46,000, making Hobbs the seventh largest city in New Mexico. The exact population is hard to determine because so many people are living in motels and RV parks because of the acute housing shortage. Apartments, houses and entire neighborhoods are under construction everywhere and they cannot be built fast enough because of the extremely high demand. New motels are being built and many other new businesses have moved in such as Lowe's and Home Depot.
Hobbs is located 3 miles from the Texas border, if one were to drive east, and 49 miles from the Texas border if one were to drive south.
Hobbs exploded into prominence in 1928 when the Discovery Well gushed forth black gold. What was an isolated town of a few hundred people suddenly exploded into a town of about 16,000 people and a rival town called New Hobbs, located immediately to the south of Hobbs and east of the gusher, sprang into existence and, within two years, had about 9,000 people.
When the Discovery Well spewed forth on the Will Terry Ranch near Hobbs on June 13, 1928, the town was little more than a general merchandise store, a post office and a small school. The town's prospects for the future looked bleak. When the well first started gushing, it had to be capped because there was no infrastructure with which to transport the oil. There were no pipelines, no storage tanks, no railroad and also no roads to speak of except for primitive dirt tracks that all petered out within a few miles of the town. Very quickly all of these things were put in place and Hobbs and New Hobbs were declared the two fastest growing cities in the United States in the 1930 Census.
Hobbs and New Hobbs merged into one town in 1938 and, ever since then, the town's fortunes have waxed and waned with the oil industry. The economy of Hobbs had been inextricably linked to the oil industry ever since the gusher came in. There is some agriculture in the area, mostly east of Hobbs in Texas, but not much. Hobbs is basically a one-industry town, although that is slowly changing as city leaders are working to diversify its economy.
The population of Hobbs has been as high as 33,000, but, for the most part, it has hovered in the 26,000 to 29,000 range since the 1940s--until now.
The first time I ever saw Hobbs was in the early 1980s on my way to summer camp near
Santa Fe. I remember saying to myself "Wow, what a depressed-looking town." This was during the oil bust of the 1980s that led to the biggest bank foreclosure in American history, the
Midland National Bank in Midland, Texas, which is a 94 mile drive from Hobbs.
The last 2 times I was in Hobbs, which were both in 2011, I could hardly believe my eyes!
From the 2000 Census to the 2010 Census, the population had jumped from 28,657 to 34,122. In the two years since the last Census was enumerated, the population has risen to about 46,000, making Hobbs the seventh largest city in New Mexico. The exact population is hard to determine because so many people are living in motels and RV parks because of the acute housing shortage. Apartments, houses and entire neighborhoods are under construction everywhere and they cannot be built fast enough because of the extremely high demand. New motels are being built and many other new businesses have moved in such as Lowe's and Home Depot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)