Time zone Central (CST) (UTC-6) Elevation 818 m Population 19 (2010) Local time Saturday 9:55 PM | Founded 1931 ZIP codes 79754 Zip code 79754 Area code 432 | |
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Weather 23°C, Wind SE at 21 km/h, 50% Humidity | ||
Mentone is a small town in Loving County, Texas. As the county's only community, it serves as the county seat and has a 2010 population of 19, almost a quarter of the county's 82 people. Mentone was until recently the least-populated unincorporated county seat in the United States, but lost that distinction with the 2010 census to Gann Valley, South Dakota, which has a population of 14. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967 as the "Smallest County Seat in Texas".
Contents
Map of Mentone, TX 79754, USA
Geography
Mentone is located at an elevation of 2,684 feet (818 m). It is situated on State Highway 302, seventy-five miles west of Odessa.
Climate
Mentone experiences an arid desert climate with hot summers and cool winters. Due to Mentone's aridity, the Diurnal temperature variation is substantial, and helps lower nighttime temperatures. Most precipitation falls in the summer and early fall.
History
Named after Menton, France by a French surveyor, present-day Mentone is actually the second such named community in Loving County; an earlier Mentone was founded south of the current town in 1893, but was abandoned in 1905. A second town on that site was called Juanita and then Porterville, but was deserted anew when Mentone was reestablished in 1931, with most residents moving to the new town. The town on the current site was named Ramsey before being renamed. During its heyday, Mentone boasted five cafes, five gas stations, two hotels, two drugstores, two recreation halls, two barbershops, a dance hall, a machine shop and a dry cleaner. It also had its own newspaper, the Mentone Monitor, which published from 1932 to 1935. After reaching a high population mark of approximately 600 residents in the 1930s, the population has declined ever since, and in 2000 there were only 15 people, "more or less", according to National Geographic magazine (the total population of Loving County itself (as of 2010) is 82.)
Today, according to National Geographic, Mentone contains a courthouse, two stop signs, gas station, post office, school building (Mentone schools were closed in the 1970s and merged with nearby Wink schools, because enrollment had fallen to just two pupils), and little else. A volunteer fire department serves the town, but there are no hospitals or cemeteries, and no doctors or lawyers. Until 1988, Mentone had no potable water of its own; local wells yielded water with a high mineral content that clogged pipes and killed grass. Drinking water was trucked in from Pecos, 23 miles (37 km) away, until recent improvements guaranteed the potability of Mentone's water.
Mentone's tiny church (the oldest building in Loving County) is visited every Saturday by a minister from a nearby town who holds interdenominational services there.
Mentone was the home of the first elected female sheriff in Texas, Edna Reed Clayton DeWees. DeWees was appointed to the job in January 1945, then won an election to continue in the office through 1947. She never carried a firearm, and reported only two arrests during her entire term. This is not unusual in Loving County; since the inception of the county, there have been fewer than 200 criminal cases filed in District Court. Later DeWees would return as county and district clerk, a job she held from 1965 to 1986. In Loving County, the posts of county clerk, probate clerk, and of district clerk are managed by the same official. DeWees died January 22, 2009, having survived her husbands George Clayton and Lawrence DeWees.
Free Town Project
In February 2006, Mentone became the focus of a New York Times article detailing an alleged attempt by Lawrence Pendarvis, Bobby Emory and Don Duncan to "take over" the town and Loving County. According to the article, Pendarvis and his associates, part of the "Free Town Project", planned to buy parcels of land in the county, then move in enough of their supporters to outvote earlier residents and take control of local government.
According to a website for Mr. Pendarvis' movement, their objectives were to "Remove oppressive regulations... and stop enforcement of laws prohibiting victimless acts among consenting adults" Additionally, the group sought "to ensure that the sheriff's office or the town police are never allowed to waste valuable town resources... to oppress our residents by the investigation or enforcement of violations of laws that punish truancy, drug trafficking, prostitution, obscenity, organ trafficking, and other victimless 'crimes'."
Although Pendarvis, Emory and Duncan claimed to have legally bought 126 acres (51 ha) in Loving County in 2005, and registered to vote accordingly, the county sheriff, Billy Burt Hopper, determined that this land had been sold to a different buyer. Misdemeanor charges were filed against the three men, who had left the state by this time. Pendarvis claimed to have a cancelled check to prove his purchase of the land in question, but no deed was ever produced, and the original landowners denied having sold land to Pendarvis or his associates. The three were subsequently featured on a "wanted" poster issued by Sheriff Hopper and the local Texas Rangers (displayed at Hopper's office), and threatened with arrest should they return to Loving County.
As of 2017, Pendarvis' website is no longer operational.
Education
Mentone is served by the Wink-Loving Independent School District. Loving County's school system was closed and consolidated into Wink's ISD in 1972 because the enrollment had fallen to two students. The abandoned school building's gymnasium is still occasionally used for local events.