Not since the 1950s have Big Country communities been pinched so hard between soft oil prices and a bleak agricultural outlook, according to Brad Helbert, executive director of the West Central Texas Council of Governments. On top of the scorching, dry weather that aborted crop production, both agriculture and oil commodities markets are glutted. Add a decades-old flight from rural communities to the convergence of bad omens, and one can understand why people in this area are feeling blue while anticipating red ink. Jones and southern Haskell, Stonewall and Throckmorton counties, where the gloom is more severe than elsewhere, could be considered ground zero.
Green fields roll on to the south in Brown County.
But weeds towering above sparse, yellowed and withered fields are virtually the only greenery just north of Abilene. And those are the healthy fields. Many are just parched soil. Heavily reliant on mineral taxes, inhabitants of those counties say they worry about government budget shortfalls since stripper wells either have been plugged or idled. The only oil activity to speak of in the Eastern Shelf is stripper wells.