Bead-Mentone Pink Stone TB

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Photos in the travel bug logs are appreciated.  I will be re-post them here, where they can be seen by other cachers.

While the TB owner lives on the Southern High Plains in the Panhandle of northwest Texas, he has spent considerable time in what many Texans would call Far West Texas.  It remains a favorite part of the state.  Much of it is the Chihuahuan Desert.  In the desert are remotes outposts of civilization and even mountains that rise high enough to harbor junipers and pines.  This travel bug commemorates a favorite place in the region, partly because the history and partly because of memories.

Mentone is an unincorporated area in Loving County, Texas, which is the least populous county in the United States. As the county's only community, it serves as the county seat and had a 2010 population of 19, almost one-fourth of the county's 82 people.

Prehistorically, the area had many springs with potable water that supported wildlife and nomadic hunters.  Antonio de Espejo visited the area in 1583 and crossed the Pecos River.

Loving County is named for Oliver Loving, a cattle rancher and pioneer of the cattle drive who, along with Charles Goodnight, developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was mortally wounded by Comanches while on a cattle drive in 1867 in the vicinity of the county.

Oil was discovered in 1921, leading to a population increase in Loving County. By 1930, there were 195 residents, mostly living in what would become the town of Mentone. By 1933, the population had peaked at 600, only to begin a steady decline which continues to the present day.

Loving County was the home of the first elected female sheriff in Texas, Edna Reed Clayton Dewees. She was appointed to the job in January 1945, then won an election to continue in the office through 1947.  She never carried a firearm, and reported only two arrests during her entire term.

Mentone has become famous for its lack of people. Besides no newspaper, no grocery, no doctor and no school, they also have to haul in drinking water. They even rely on nearby Kermit or Pecos for the use of their cemeteries. People have been buried in Loving County, but their graves are only of interest to archeologists.