The Loneliest County In America 

There was an instance in Loving County where the sheriff's wife was murdered in her home and her wedding ring stolen. The guy who killed her and stole the ring used it to propose to his girlfriend. She said yes, not knowing how he obtained the ring. He told her to hide the ring and wait until they were in Alabama before announcing their engagement. But somehow the woman did not have the ability to follow simple instructions and couldn't stop herself from showing it off. The guy ended up being arrested in El Paso, the very next day, by the widower sheriff and was sent to jail. The woman married the son of an oil tycoon and moved to Fort Worth and started a family.

I’ve always been fascinated by this county, as a native Texan I’ve had it on my bucket list to visit for a while, hopefully I’ll get around to it someday before it totally fades into history.

The areas of eastern Montana and western North Dakota also form an epic epicenter of existential emptiness, a lost locale of lurking loneliness. I've driven that stretch between Bismarck and Billings on a few occasions (that's over 400 miles or 650 km) and I couldn't believe how much there wasn't. There are counties the size of entire New England states with populations of just a couple thousand, or even just several hundred.

I've been there (and all of the 254 counties in Texas)! The county Sheriff keeps a precise running count of the county population. There's actually quite a lot of traffic passing through Mentone on Texas 302.

Only in Texas would they build a bypass around a town of 22 people.

I grew up in Texas, but much nearer to civilization. I LOLed when you talked about and showed the "bypass". A bypass around a town with less than a dozen residents? That's not just funny... that's TEXAS funny!

They lost 6 residents because they saw the writing on the wall with that bypass.

It became infamous in news reporting when the Texas Legislature decided to restrict ballot drop boxes to one per county. It was used in contrast to Harris County (pop 4,700,000) which is basically Houston to show the ridiculousness of that on a per-capita basis.

I think I've suggested this before - you should do video on (the temporary) Bullfrog County in Nevada. The story of why it came into existence and disappeared is really weird.

It's the only county in the U.S. that doesn't have a poverty level.

4:05: The US Census Bureau states the per capita income in Loving County is $53,358, not $34,173. Either way, it is very far from highest in the US which goes to Loudoun County, VA at $147,111, followed by Falls Church, VA, Santa Clara County, CA, etc. Dallas County, IA, is 100th at $88,368, still well above Loving County.

Loving County is the only county in Texas to be organized twice, in 1887 and 1931! It was originally established in 1887. Oliver Loving (hence Loving County) and Charles Goodnight drove cattle through the area in 1866, creating the Goodnight-Loving Trail. However Loving was shot by a Comanche in 1867, and died from gangrene. The area was a part of Bexar County from 1837 to 1874, when it became a part of Tom Green County. Eleven people in the area petitioned to the 19th session of the Texas Legislature to become a part of Reeves County. Thus, Loving County was created in 1887 by House Bill No. 113, although it was to be attached to Reeves County for certain purposes, including judicial and surveying. But what happened next? Six men from Denver came to the county in 1893, and founded the Loving Canal and Irrigation Company. On June 13, the men filed a petition with 150 signatures to the Reeves County Commissioners Court requesting the organization of the county and it was accepted. The county commission issued bonds worth $6,000 to construct a courthouse, but the project was not completed as a flood in August destroyed the work that was done on the irrigation project. Accusations of illegal county organization arose, which were investigated by H. C. Withers and A. H. Randolph. They were informed by W. A. Hunter, the sheriff and tax collector, that R. G. Munn, the county clerk, had taken the tax records to Denver. All of the county officials had left the county by 1897, and the county was dissolved on May 12 of that year, and returned to Reeves County. When oil became a thing there in 1931, it was reorganized!

Mentone is named after Menton in France, as it was named by a French surveyor originally from there. It's the second time a place in the county was named Mentone, as an earlier Mentone was founded south of the current town in 1893 but was abandoned in 1905. However another town was founded on the site of the original Mentone called Juanita, then Porterville (founded by Dr. Phil Porter, a physician from Michigan who moved there because he thought it would be healthier) before becoming a ghost town as all of its residents moved to Ramsey which was renamed to Mentone. Mentone was reestablished in 1931 as the result of the discovery of oil in the area, hence why the population is at its highest in the 1930s-1940s. The county has no cemetery, and the only grave in the area is for Shady Davis, a 21-year-old cowboy who was killed by his horse and buried 12 miles from Mentone in the 1920s. And besides soil, another problem the county faces is water. Water has to be imported from either Kermit in Winkler County or Pecos in Reeves County. This is because groundwater in the Mentone area contains gypsum. The Pecos River was previously used for water, but its salinity has since become too high.

So weird to have a huge county with 58 people lol. Texas is an interesting place for sure.

Man, that county was booming with it’s 285 people.

2 of my friends who live in Texas went all the way there just to say they've been there. It's an inside joke in my friend group, and one of my friends got the only photos of the INSIDE of the Courthouse up onto the internet.

Per the 2020 U.S. Census, there were eight counties in Texas with fewer than 1,000 people and 15 more with fewer than 2,000.

I’ve been off the beaten path in northern Canada (Dempster Highway) and you can feel, in your bones, that there is *nobody* around for a very long way.

Idea for a follow-up to this one; What happens if this county loses all of its population? Would it be dissolved? Or maybe folded into one of its neighbor counties? I don't know if you would do any follow-up but it would be interesting to know. Keep up the great Geo work!

Good video. I've never been to Mentone but I did live several months in San Angelo, TX which is the largest community in America not attached to an interstate. I also used to live in Nebraska and went hunting in Cherry country, right up by the South Dakota border and it was remote! Every so often you'd hit a small town with a cluster of buildings, a gas station, a bank and a grain silo and that was it.

It always makes my day to see another Beaver video! Keep it up with the great content 🦫

It would be interesting to have a video about unincorporated settlements/towns/ villages. Seems to be somthing that only exists in the USA & Canada.

When I was driving through this county I remember scanning the FM radio and it continuously looped since no station was available

In the 1960s or early 1970s, LIFE magazine had an article about Mentone. I recalled it while driving with a friend from Big Bend to Carlsbad Caverns National Park at the end of 1979, so I suggested a slight detour up SR 302 to Mentone. The article mentioned Keen's Cafe as the social center of the county. When we stopped there for a Coke, the owner was pleased that I knew about the LIFE feature, and he gave me a copy of it! The other local business was an Exxon station. According to Google street view, Keen's Cafe is gone, with a Valero station/convenience store now at that location. Exxon is also gone, but its remnants are still visible across Pecos St. from the Loving Co. Courthouse.

This was the place that literally had no covid cases for like the first 2 years if I remember right.

There should be a mention of Hamilton County, NY as being the most lonely county in the eastern US, despite it having a similar size to Delaware, it only has 5,000 residents! Closest place of note is Albany however which can get pretty close to parts of the county

The level of gossip there must be insane

I believe they have no water in Mentone. Potable water is trucked in.

Kalawao County in Hawaii: We're not the lonely one??

County Seat, population 10. I almost spit out my coffee.

It's really interesting just how well the locals are taken care of. Almost all of them have really great jobs in the oil and natural gas industries, there is a convenience store and a few small eateries, and a variety of public services. These include police, fire, EMS, postal, water, and sewage. For education, students attend Wink-Loving in neighboring Winkler County, and the high school has an extremely high-quality athletic complex. Just a few years ago, the Texas Education Agency deemed the district as "failing," and they actually fixed it by replacing almost everything, including both schools! On top of that, students have access to Odessa College for post-secondary education.

Loving County does not have the highest per capita income in the United States or even Texas. It has the 4th highest currently in Texas. It DID have the highest but that is no longer true.

You could make the case that the loneliest county in the USA was Yucca Mountain, since no one lived there and it was only used as nuclear waste disposal. Very interesting video, tho :)

“The per capita income in the county is $34,173 making it the highest of any county in the us” What?

I grew up in a county in Colorado that had a population of roughly 1800 people when I was born and has since declined to 1373 people over 1600 square miles. It's also surrounded by mountains all directions so the isolation is for real, especially in the winter. While it was 1300 more people than the Texas county, it still feels like it could make a Lonely List of some sort.

I have a Bachelor's Degree - I can be the King of that County.

Never knew I needed Chris Griffin to teach me geography😅

I thought for sure you were going to discuss Nye County (NV). It's the largest county, presumably because there's nothing there.

I cackled at “Pol Pot’s Pie Hole.”

Interesting video. I was sure the least populated would be somewhere in Nevada.

Interesting to see counties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If I'm not mistaken 4 of the largest counties east of the Mississippi River are located there!!

Loving County was the last county in the Lower 48 to have a Covid case.

Harney county in oregon has 7500 people, but is 15x the area of Loving County. 60% of the population lives in about 10 square miles in the "twin cities" of Burns and Hines. They're 5 hours to portland and 3 to Boise.

So little is organized by county here in Rhode Island as to make them functionally useless as a geographic distinction outside of our civil and criminal court system. Really, a state the size of Rhode Island either shouldn't have counties, or should start using them more effectively. 39 separate cities and town governments in a state of just about 1.1M people always seemed a little ridiculous to me. For example, nearly every city and town here with only a handful of exceptions manage their own separate school district.

When I was returning east from my first trip to the west coast in 2021, I decided to stop by Loving County. As was shown in the video, it's surprisingly got a lot for having only about as many people as live within 500 feet of me. The convenience store seemed pretty busy and was doing well with a food truck in the parking lot, and I stopped by the café mentioned in the video for lunch. It serves mostly Mexican food for lunch and while it's not as good as most restaurants where I live (and my town isn't known for great restaurants), it's a lot better than what you would expect for a town of 10 people and county of 60. After going around Mentone a bit which of course doesn't have much with a few buildings abandoned, I actually found it hard to turn back onto the state highway that goes through the county because of all the oil trucks going through. It was honestly kind of weird to see a traffic density issue in a county whose claim to fame is having almost nobody live there. What seems to be going on is that the oil industry brings in a lot of people to come in and pump and deliver oil, but there isn't much in the way of land for them to live there. As was mentioned in the video, it's not the poor and desolate place you would expect with remote villages like you see on reservations or in the Appalachians. Also it's worth pointing out that while Loving County is 60 percent the size of Rhode Island, many counties further west are much bigger than that and even more rural. When heading through Wyoming on I-80 a month ago I calculated using the Missouri Census Data Center website that only 4 people lived within 10 miles of my location at that point.

Texas loves their loops, even in small towns.

Lmao, am I the only one who noticed how at 2:36 the town of Loving is ironically located far outside Loving county? (It's in Eddy county, New Mexico. Not to be confused with Lea county right next to it, whose county seat is Lovington )

Never knew how less dense by population density the west was compared to the east but thanks for making this video as i actually never knew this even though im a big geography fan

You should do a video about the lonely counties in Alaska and Hawaii.

Everyone there must know each other very well

A couple of years ago, when I was living in the Oklahoma panhandle (another very lonely place), I took a road trip down to Big Bend, and I intentionally chose a route that took me through Loving County. Not only were there long stretches of empty road all the way from Lubbock on, but there was also a constant haze from the wind blowing up dust.

❤❤❤❤❤❤ I wish more and more city planners would move to and settle in his county to build more towns there.

It’s kinda weird that the west has some of the most expensive real estate compared to the east.

I’m pretty lonely here in Maricopa County

I'm taking a trip to nearby Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountain NP's this year I'll have to stop through Mentone 😂

Another way of measuring would be people per square mile. Given that, I'm curious where Loving County falls!

My first thought regarding “lonely” places in America was basically all of Nevada outside Vegas and Reno/Carson City areas HA!

Several years ago, i visited the courthouse in Mentone. In there the courtroom had 12 seats for jurists. Now where do you acquire 12 impartial jurists in of county of 64 people?

3:10? Highest per capita income for a county in the US? Could you provide your source? Doesn’t sound correct

As an Odessa resident watching this on a plane taxing out to fly me eventually to California I should take offense. However I cannot since your spot on 🤣🤣

I snapped a picture of the courthouse in the 90s. Kind of desolate then too m

I enjoyed this video. Thank you.

The 2020 Census figures show that 28 of Loving County's 64 residents were under age 10, so it would seem to have a good future.

I can tell that there are lots of oil workers working there by the google streetview imagery.

Another interesting isolated county is Carton County in New Mexico.

there's... no way that gdp per capita info can be right. either it has to be way higher, or it's nowhere near the top county.

Because when i think of places i want to bypass, its cities with 15 residents or so.

I was wondering if Kalawao County would get on this list, which it sort of does.

That is definitely not the highest per capita income for a county in the USA. LA County’s per capita income is $37,924. In Cook County, Illinois (Chicago,) it’s $41,706. In Fairfield County, Connecticut, it is $61,549.

I’ve been there the population is small extremely small but with all Oil drilling going on there’s a lot more people working in that county than live in that county.

I don't understand why small and underpopulated counties aren't just merged into neighboring counties, other than county bigwigs opposing it to protect their positions. Texas has way too many counties , resulting in a lot of duplication and high property taxes.

I used make fruit juice deliveries to the Midland School district (from Houston). There is one area that says 'Next Gas 119 miles' or some number. It was expensive gas, then it says 'After 7:30 you have to pay a $10 fee' and press this button. It was 8 PM, and I could hear the guy's TV on. I wasn't paying for the gas, so I pressed the button.

Keweenaw County in Michigan is pretty remote. 250 miles to green bay, 500 miles Minneapolis. The closest city of over 10k residents would be Marquette about 150 miles away. The county has about 2000 residents.

I know this town and county from a zip code article National Geographic did on this place in 2000.

I'm always amused by western counties that are larger than some eastern states.

homeboy finna slashdot a whole county

Are there more trees than people? :) Any surface water? run off? Oilspills? ;-p

The county has a population of 64... But in 2020, 66 people voted in the presidential election...

The population booms during the day from oil field workers who live in temporary housing in adjacent counties

I grew up in Bayfield county in northern Wisconsin, about 12,000 people and zero stop lights in the whole county. However 64 people almost makes u wonder why it's even a county?

Before watching I’m guessing it’s either the county in Nebraska with the town with only 1 person or somewhere in Wyoming

I used to pass by there to work there is nothing except a small little town

Looking at Google maps, everyone that lives there drives a truck of some kind.

Loving TX is iconic.

I've got a video idea if you're interested. Most populated streets in the country

If Nevada divided up it's counties as small as Texas does, it could have multiple counties larger than loving County with a population of zero.

This looks like a good place to move to.

As someone who lives in Texas. One of the biggest pet peeves when going on road trips to vacation to the west. Is just getting out of Texas. By god from the Sabine River to El Paso is like 800 miles or something close to that. Can’t imagine the distance from Brownsville to the tippy top of the state. But I’m sure someone has done it. The other thing that is annoying, is why there is no Bucc-ee’s past new Braunfels. Would be awesome if they had one in Fort Stockton, or Van horn.

we found carburetor county irl

This video could probably double the counties population

I learned about this place from a 2000 issue of National Geographic.

Listen, as an Odessa native, it's not that empty.

So basically at this point, Mentone, with the business to population ratio, is on par with the Sweet Pickles town. Lol

maybe alot of the oil fields are worked by people from Odessa?

A lot more people watched this video than the amount of people in the county

I'm confused on the per capita income statement?

Beaver Geography WILL make more Florida videos or else...

4:01 I don't think loving county doesn't have the highest GDP per capita in the US

It's past time for Loving County to dissolve and be joined to a neighboring county. Someone claimed that the 64 people in that 2020 census is sufficient for a county, but it's hard to see how. That huge volume of tax money per resident sounds like too much temptation for whoever is in charge. Hard to see how that squares with the purported per capita income.

Does every resident work for the county?