Welcome
1950s postcard of downtown Marfa, Texas
Presidio County was created in 1852 from the Bexar district and is located in far west Texas on the Rio Grande. It was named for the fort that had stood on the south side of the Rio Grande for almost 100 years at the time - Presidio del Norte de la Junta de los Ríos 'north of the junction of the rivers' (Conchos and Grande). At the time of its creation, its 21,820 sq miles made it the largest county in the country until 1887, when we began chipping away at it to create smaller, more manageable counties. Originally, Fort Davis was the county seat.
The present-day county seat is Marfa, named for Jules Verne's fictional character, Marfa Strogoff, and located in the northeastern-most corner of Presidio County at the intersection of US highways 90 and 67. Marfa is home to the infamous "Marfa lights", which have been a mystery since they were first reported in 1883.