Valentine

Valentine, the smaller of Jeff Davis County's two towns, is on U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad in the southwestern part of the county, thirty-six miles west of Fort Davis. It was founded and named when the Southern Pacific Railroad crew, building east, reached the site on February 14, 1882. Trains began running the next year, and a post office was established in 1886. In 1890 Valentine had a population estimated at 100, two saloons, a general store, a hotel, and a meat market. Two years later only one saloon was left, but the population had risen to an estimated 140. Valentine became a shipping point for local cattle ranchers, and by 1914 the town had an estimated population of 500, five cattle breeders, a news company, a real estate office, a grocery store, a restaurant, and the Valentine Business Club. A decade later the population had fallen to an estimated 250, but it rose again to 500 by the late 1920s and to 629 by the early 1930s. In the late 1970s the town had an estimated population of 226, a high school, an elementary school, and two churches. The estimated population rose to 328 in the early 1980s; in 1990 it was 217. In 2000 the population was 187.