Does anyone live in Pecos, Texas? Can you share some current pictures of the area? I googled it, but it appears to be either a dead town or the pictures are never updated.

Are there any new home communities? KB homes? etc?

Please share some info. :-)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JeffSig2022,

Been through there. One of our members lives close by in West Texas terms, in Brewster County, Tx. Not a happening place. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I landed there once when I was facing a huge dust storm that topped out above 13,000'msl. I was doing low level aerial survey at the time. Airport was an old army airfield from WW2.

Not a bad place if you like solitude. Nice museum with a few "gee whiz" exhibits.

Haven't been there since the late 90s. When I was working oil & gas in the Permian Basin I spent some time in the area, but I lived in Midland so I always drove the 110 miles back home rather than stay.

If I remember correctly, there was more oil & gas facilities in Monahans & Kermit than Pecos. Of course, back then they hadn't discovered the unconventional layer of oil & gas under the conventional layer we've been producing for generations.

Myself & grown son traveled thru there circa 2009. Small town, beat down by heat & sand & the distinct impression there was little to do after dark.

I stayed in the room, son drove 2 blocks to burger stop, returns later a bit agitated reporting being harassed & almost arrested by local LEO while waiting in the drive-thru line for burgers.

Usually in travels I like to make a turn or 2 around the area to get a flavor of the town.

Pecos wasn't very welcoming in our little sample time. It's the first actual town S of Roswell, NM if you have the need to buff up your UFO skills.

The Interstate through there has an 80mph speed limit....

flashguy

Calling it a dead town is a compliment.

I'm probably the member referred to who lives "near" there, a hundred miles away. We used to drive through Pecos going to Colorado. Now we go through Van Horn and past the Guadalupe Mountains, a longer route but much more scenic and far safer. We had too many close calls on the road through Pecos. Oilfield truck traffic, trucks driven by drug addled morons who have been awake and at work far longer than legal or prudent. Hot as hell in the summer. Very dry. Dust storms six weeks a year, in the "springtime". Trains on RR tracks block all traffic on the US Highway for sometimes 30 minutes. I have friends who grew up in Pecos and even they think it sucks now.

There is no way I would consider living there, unless I was a bachelor and made a snogging shitload of money, and I probably wouldn't do it even then.

To be fair, its salient bragging points are:

There's a Federal Court house there. (I have no idea why)

It has a Wal-Mart-the worst one I've ever been in.
(this store once had a banner hanging in front touting, if memory serves, a 47% customer satisfaction rate) (I don't believe anyone working in the store knew 47% was pretty bad)

There's a good little hole-in-the-wall tamale place there.

Seriously, if you're considering moving there, take a trip out there and spend a few days. You can fly into Midland, which is a far nicer place, with a little commercial airport served by Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, and possibly American Airlines.

I passed through the area in 1990. Even I, a "loner" type, don't like that much solitude.

Highway 285 that runs trough Pecos is probably the worst road I have ever traveled. Beat up by all the oil field trucks and then having to deal with the insane drivers makes for a challenging drive. Pecos is no respite from that. Famous for cantaloupes though.

Street view of google maps has recent photos.

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
It's the first actual town S of Roswell, NM if you have the need to buff up your UFO skills.

First southeast, after Artesia and Carlsbad NM, either of which is far superior to Pecos. It is the first town of any size in Texas on US 285, though.

Everyone pretty much has it pegged. The only difference I'd take to the above is signewt's comment that it's the first "real" town since Roswell. But there's Artesia NM, about half an hour S of Roswell, home to FLETC, and Carlsbad NM (where I "live"), half an hour or so S of that and home to the caverns.

US-285 is beat to hell by oilfield traffic, really bad road.

It is, however, reasonably close to Big Bend National Park and environs. By west Texas definitions of "close", anyway.

ETA: arfmel beat me to it....

It is like many West Texas towns. It is a combination of economics and demographics. Many smaller West Texas towns are slowly dying for this reason.

Kids usually leave to earn money and a somewhat better lifestyle to more affluent Texas towns and cities. Most have negative growth.

I will be forced to go there Thursday for a football game. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't set foot there. The previous Descriptions are accurate.

Tommy

Boy, this is a tough crowd!

Half a Pecos cantaloupe with a scoop of vanilla Blue Bell in it is an unbeatable treat...

One of my regular stops running Phoenix to Dallas and back. Descriptions are accurate. Someone said the prison(s) and onion growing were what was done there. Lots of state troopers and border patrol off the interstate. Mostly get fuel or hit Walmart, but have stayed at the Motel 6 and that adjacent hotel. Found a restaurant that served me one of the best steaks I've ever had - some hole in the wall a local told me about. No, I would not care to live there. Too isolated, as is much of west Texas.

quote:

Originally posted by dubya:
Boy, this is a tough crowd!

Half a Pecos cantaloupe with a scoop of vanilla Blue Bell in it is an unbeatable treat...

When I lived in Midland we sought out the Coyanosa cantaloupe grown in Coyanosa, Texas, which is about 30 miles SE of Pecos. I was shocked seeing my coworkers eating something so healthy, but one bite of the Coyanosa cantaloupe I could understand why they were taking a break from clogging their arteries.

It is a small town normally only driven through while zipping through it on I-20. It is still a big oil and natural gas producer, but there is also farming and a prison there. It was hopping during the oil boom about 4 years ago a long with Midland/Odessa, but it has slowed due to low oil prices. I'm not too far away from there, and when I stop to eat there, the best place for barbecue for millions of miles around is Pody's.

Yes the only thing I know about Pecos is Pecos cantaloupes are the best in the world.

Spent <60 minutes at the airport 20 years ago, after we had to refuel early due to headwinds and delays into ELP.

There were tumbleweeds blowing across the runway / taxiways. We gassed up and got the hell outta there.