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There is no grocery
store here, or bank, or hospital. Not even a cemetery. No
lawyers or Libertarians either in Loving County, Texas, the
least populated county in America.
In 2004, The
Texas Lawyer labeled Loving County the Land
Without Lawyers. It's a label the citizens are proud
to carry.
"Well, goodness,"
Loving County Sheriff Billy Hopper explained, "if you've
got to have rattlesnakes or lawyers, which one would you
have?"
Sheriff Hopper
patrols the 673 square miles of Loving County in a pickup
truck with two shotguns and an AK-47.
 The nearest sizable
city is Pecos, 20 miles to the south, with about 9,500 people.
and even they go to Odessa for big shopping trips.
But Loving County
residents like things just the way they are.
"When I was little,
I couldn't wait to leave," said Beverly Hanson, Loving County
Clerk. Then, she said, "I went to see the bright lights" — she
became an apartment manager in Dallas — married and divorced
and happily returned home. "I knew I was safe here," she said.
In 2005 Sheriff
Hopper foiled a takeover attempt
by a radical faction of the Libertarian party by calling on
the Texas Rangers. The radical Libertarian group had sworn to
"free" Loving County by buying property and moving in voters.
IDon Creager
the Loving County Judge for 28 years told the associated
press, "The rules that apply a lot of places don't apply
here,"
"We just live a
different lifestyle. We like it the way it is," Creager said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau the population of Loving
County was estimated to be 67 in the year 2000. By 2005 there
were 61 residents. By July, 2006 there were only 60 people who
still called Loving County, Texas home.
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