Dimmit County is in Southwest Texas, on the border with Mexico. It was once occupied by the Comanche until they were driven out by the Texas Rangers. The county was created by Texas in 1858 by taking pieces of Bexar, Webb, Maverick and Uvalde counties and named it after the Texas revolutionary Phil Dimitt – but the law misspelled his name.
The land is mostly flat with lots of brush, sandy loam soil. It’s called the Wild Horse Desert. Today Dimmit county has a population of just over two thousand .
To survey the landscape it appears deceptively simple and straightforward. But look deeper, below the surface and that’s where you’ll find the complexities and the treasure; water and oil.
Hugh Asa Fitzsimons the third write about the land, his family and their ranching legacy in Dimmit County this in his book A Rock Between Two Rivers – Fracturing a Texas Family Ranch. It’s published by Trinity University Press.
