Dell City, Texas
city in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States
Dell City is a city in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States. The population was 365 at the time of the 2010 census, down from 413 at the time of the 2000 census. The population is now at 245 by the 2020 census. It is near the former location of Paulville, a failed Ron Paul-inspired Libertarian cooperative and planned community.
The city was incorporated in 1948, shortly after the discovery of an underground water supply by oil prospectors, which attracted farmers to the area. Its name is a reference to the nursery rhyme "The Farmer in the Dell."
History
Dell City was established in 1948, as an aquifer had been found in the area. Settlers came from other areas of Texas and New Mexico. It developed into being a farming town. The community had about 500 people in the 1950s.
In 2012, Jeanne Catsoulis of The New York Times described Dell City as "a borderline ghost town".
The public source identifies “Dell City, Texas” as city in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dell, City and Texas.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Dell City, Texas”, the useful work is to connect “city in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q977295. Authority coordinates are 31.935, -105.200. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2000, 2020 and 1948.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Dell City, Texas primary sources, Dell City, Texas archive and Dell research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Dell City, Texas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.