Mentone - Texas Ghost Town

MENTONE

NAME: Mentone
COUNTY: Loving
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 2
CLIMATE: Warm winter, hot summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT:Winter, spring, fall

COMMENTS: A few current residents.
REMAINS: Many buildings.

Mentone is a twentieth century ghost town having first been laid out in 1922. Almost a decade passed before the site was inhabited and that was due to the discovery of oil nearby in the Wheat Oil Field in 1930. By July, 1931 the town had several hotels, drugstores, cafes, filling stations, two recreation halls and an oil refinery. Mentone is located in Loving County, which is the least populated county in Texas. In 1933, which was the county's most populous year, it had an estimated six hundred residents, most of them in Mentone. As oil production declined, so did Mentone. By 1940, it had only 150 residents. Today, maybe twenty or thirty. The townsite is full of debris from the time of the oil boom as well as the County Courthouse and abandoned homes and buildings. Mentone is on Texas highway 302 about 25 miles north of Pecos. SUBMITTED BY: Henry Chenoweth

Mentone is a twentieth century ghost town having first been laid out in 1922. Almost a decade passed before the site was inhabited and that was due to the discovery of oil nearby in the Wheat Oil Field in 1930. By July, 1931 the town had several hotels, drugstores, cafes, filling stations, two recreation halls and an oil refinery. Mentone is located in Loving County, which is the least populated county in Texas. In 1933, which was the county's most populous year, it had an estimated six hundred residents, most of them in Mentone. As oil production declined, so did Mentone. By 1940, it had only 150 residents. Today, maybe twenty or thirty. The townsite is full of debris from the time of the oil boom as well as the County Courthouse and abandoned homes and buildings. Mentone is on Texas highway 302 about 25 miles north of Pecos. SUBMITTED BY: Henry Chenoweth

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