Original Culberson County Jail
Van Horn, Culberson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In order to provide local law enforcement in the wake of Mexican bandit attacks, Culberson County was organized in 1911. The following year the county commissioners accepted plans for construction of this red brick jail. Although prisoners at times dug through the brick walls, the structure was used until a new courthouse which included a jail was completed in 1964.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When raids spilling across the Mexican border prompted the organization of Culberson County in 1911, one of the first orders of business was a place to hold prisoners. The commissioners approved this sturdy red brick jail in 1912, and though inmates occasionally clawed their way through its walls, it served the remote West Texas county for more than half a century until a new courthouse jail replaced it in 1964.
Why it matters
It marks how young frontier counties built their first institutions of law and order amid the instability of the Mexican Revolution era along the border.
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