Yoakum County Courthouse (Plains)
Architect: Wyatt C. Hendrick & Co.
Year Built: 1949
Yoakum County Courthouse is located in Plains, Texas, which is in the southern part of the Texas panhandle. It is in far west Texas and borders New Mexico. The City of Plains is 13 miles east of the New Mexico border. This area was once occupied by Indians, including Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa tribes.
Yoakum County was established by the Texas Legislature in 1876 from the massive Bexar County District (during the late period of Mexican rule from 1821-1836, Texas was divided into four departments, with the region of Bexar stretching west to the Rio Grande and extending all the way to Wyoming).
Indian activity and frontier hazards made growth slow. The 1890 U.S. Census found only 4 residents. Only itinerant buffalo hunters and scattered ranches populated the area after 1900. County government was organized in 1907 and by 1910 the population reached 602 as the result of the sale of state lands.
The County was dry (no alcohol sales) until 2013.
Wyatt C. Hendrick & Co. designed the U.S. Post office building in Ft. Worth, the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, and other Texas courthouses.
