Ozona: The Town a Windmill Built

Ozona exists because of a man with a drill and a generous streak. In eighteen ninety-one, surveyor E. M.

Powell drilled a well near Johnson Draw, struck good water, and promptly donated parcels for a school, churches, parks, a courthouse, and a jail, essentially inviting a county seat to build itself around his windmill. The place was first called Powell Well before residents renamed it Ozona, for the quantity of fresh open air. Within a year the population hit four hundred, and Ozona won the Crockett County seat over a rival community.

Crockett County, for its part, was named for Davy Crockett, who died at the Alamo in eighteen thirty-six. Today Ozona still holds the distinction of being the only town in the county, and Crockett County is one of the largest in Texas.