Ozona's First Water Well
Ozona, Crockett County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Drilled 1891) Focus for civic life in early Ozona. City founder E.M. Powell provided the water well equipped with 18-foot windmill, a water trough, and a small cypress tank. At first meeting of Crockett County Commissioners Court, July 22, 1891, under a liveoak near the well, the sheriff was instructed to operate the city water works. At the time, tents housed most homes and stores, and water was hauled from city well--often by children using toy wagons. In a few years homes had private wells and windmills. A modern system piped water throughout the city in the early 1900s. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Drilled in 1891, this well was the hub of civic life in fledgling Ozona, provided by town founder E. M. Powell with an 18-foot windmill, a trough, and a small cypress tank. At the first meeting of the Crockett County Commissioners Court, held under a nearby live oak that July, the sheriff was put in charge of the waterworks. In a town where most homes and shops were still tents, water was hauled off — sometimes by children pulling toy wagons — until private wells and, later, a piped system took over.
Why it matters
In the arid West, a single reliable well could be the difference between a town's survival and its abandonment, making water the foundation of frontier civic life.
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Related people
- · E. M. Powell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Crockett County
Ozona, TX
Carved from Bexar Territory, Crockett County was created on January 22, 1875, and formally organized on July 7, 1891, with Ozona as its county seat. It honors David Crockett (1786–1836), the Tennessee congressman who died defending the Alamo. The marker records the county's founding and its namesake in a few spare lines.