Fort Davis, the seat of Jeff Davis County and named for Jefferson Davis, then the secretary of war, is centered in the Davis Mountains. Following U.S. acquisition of the Trans-Pecos region as a result of the Mexico-American War, the U.S. Army’s Whiting-Smith expedition had mapped the Lower Military Road Trail through the county in 1849, the route for emigrant wagons headed for the California gold rush, and for cattle. To protect the route, the army established Fort Davis in 1854, and a town called Chihuahua grew up near it, with merchants who supplied the fort, saloons, brothels, and other attractions. Confederate troops briefly took control of Fort Davis at the beginning of the Civil War; when they left, the Apache attacked and drove away Chihuahua’s inhabitants. The fort and town were reborn in 1867. The fort became a major force in the Anglo settlement of the Trans-Pecos region until it closed in 1891.
With its cool temperatures and low humidity, Fort Davis became a popular spot for prosperous Texas vacationers in the 1890s. The Hotel Limpia (FV28) and other commercial and residential buildings date from this period. Tourism was further boosted by creation of the nearby Davis Mountains State Park and the University of Texas McDonald Observatory (FV34) in the 1930s. Since the 1990s, tens of thousands of acres from established ranch holdings in the county have passed into the hands of conservation buyers brought in by the Texas Nature Conservancy.
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