Lobo

LOBO, TEXAS . Lobo was twelve miles south of Van Horn on the Southern Pacific line and U.S. Highway 90 in southwestern Culberson County. Near the site were the Van Horn Wells, the only dependable water source for miles. The wells were a stop on the San Antonio-San Diego mail route in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1882 the railroad drilled a water well and built a depot and cattle loading pens in the area. By 1907 a post office had been opened and named for the wolves that had formerly roamed the area. Storekeeper J. Curtis Jones was postmaster. In 1909 a townsite was laid out at Lobo; promoters advertised artesian wells and a large hotel, among other amenities, but when the purchasers arrived they discovered that they had been duped. Through legal action, however, they forced the promoters to build a hotel, drill wells, and generally live up to their promises. In 1911, when Culberson County was organized, Lobo vied unsuccessfully with Van Horn to become the county seat, and in 1914 Lobo had an estimated population of twenty, two physicians, several cattle breeders, an automobile livery, and a general store.