Field trip to the badlands.

I  made a trip to Upton and Reagan Counties today to "pull some records". That's what they call courthouse work out here.  Both county seats are an hour or so south of Midland.  As you approach them you can see plateaus, or small mountains off to the south.  I went to Rankin, TX first, in Upton County.  I had a hard time finding the courthouse.  The population of the town is surely less than 1000 people.

A view of the town of Rankin.  Can you see the courthouse?

A windmill along the way.  Notice the cattle in the mesquites below.  These windmills are used to power the pumps in the water wells.  They are all over the place out here.

After Upton County, I drove to Big Lake, TX,  the county seat of Reagan County.

On the way back to Midland, I drove through Stiles, TX,  a ghost town.  These are pictures of the old courthouse. Stiles used to be the county seat of Reagan County.  I walked around inside the old building. I did not see any ghosts and I was not scared.

I drove by many pecan orchards.  They really stick out amongst the dusty, plowed up fields, which remain brown from no precipitation.

There were miles and miles of plowed up fields, with no crops in them.  I think these are normally cotton fields.  Maybe they plant their cotton later in the year here.

One picture I wish I'd taken was the ranch entrance with several dead coyotes hanging on the fence.  I had heard the ranchers did that to the coyotes they killed on their ranches.  If we kill any coyotes on our ranch we will have them stuffed.  This picture is representative of what I saw.  Here is a discussion on the coyote.