Ozona, TX

Ozona is the only Census Bureau-recognized community and the county seat of Crockett County, a West Texas CDP along Interstate 10 and State Highway 163. The 2020 census counted 2,663 residents. Crockett County Consolidated Common School District, the courthouse, county offices, the Crockett County Museum, the Ozona Stockman, and local businesses keep the town functioning across a large ranching county. Ranching and oil and gas work remain part of the economy, while I-10 carries long-distance traffic between Houston and El Paso.

Ozona began as Powell Well in 1891, after surveyor E. M. Powell drilled a well and offered land for a school, churches, a courthouse, and a jail. The community won the county-seat election that year and later took the Ozona name, a reference to the area's open air. The 1902 courthouse was built from local limestone. A 1926 fire and the 1954 flood left deep marks, but the square, museum, school, junior rodeo, and fall deer season still tie the present to the county's older ranch-and-road life. Ozona is an isolated county seat with a surprisingly busy civic center around the courthouse.