Formed February 26, 1887 (228th county)
Brewster County (9,545), Alpine (6,039)
The red brick Classical Revival courthouse, built in 1887, appears to be an old-fashioned schoolhouse. It is located along United States Highway 90 west of the center of town at 201 North 6th Street. The designer of the building is Thomas Lovell. The building was restored in 2011. A 1981 Annex augments the courthouse. The county was organized on February 26, 1887 and this is the only courthouse that has been used. The county was carved from Presidio County as the 228th county. Brewster County was named for lawyer Henry Percy Brewster. Alpine is a geographic title referring to its location among several mountain ranges.
Brewster County government consists of a sheriff, a County Judge, and 4 Commissioners. One District Court Judge serves Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties and One County Court Judge serves Brewster County. This largest of Texas’s counties is in the far west part of the state with the big bend of the Rio Grande providing its southern border with Mexico. The county center is 52.6 miles Southeast of Alpine nearer Marathon. The county is surrounded clockwise by Pecos and Terrell counties and Mexico and Presidio and Jeff Davis counties. The majority of the population of the county is in the north quarter where Alpine is located. Alpine is the county seat and the largest city since it is the only incorporated city. It is 63.3% of the county population.
The area of the county is 6193 square miles. It is 1 out of 254 in the state. It ranks 169 out of 254 in population in the state. It has a density of 1.5 persons per square mile making it 234 out of 254 in the state. Brewster County has 63.3% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 67 comes in from the northeast, Pecos County and exits into Presidio County to the west. United States Highway 90 enters from Terrell County to the east, joins with United States Highway 90 at Alpine and exits west into Presidio County. United States Highway 385, from Pecos County on the north, crosses southward until its end at the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. Brewster County looks like a box of popcorn turned upside down with the popcorn pile being the Rio Grande.
Alpine
