COYANOSA, TEXAS. Coyanosa is at the intersection of Farm roads 1776 and 1450, twenty-six miles northwest of Fort Stockton in northwestern Pecos County. It was originally settled as a ranching community. A post office was established there in 1908 and discontinued in 1918. Numerous water wells were drilled in the area during the 1950s to irrigate nearby cotton farms. No population statistics were available for the community until 1958, when it reported 200 residents. Around this time the post office was reopened. By 1961 Coyanosa reported eight businesses and an estimated population of 600. Greatly increased fuel prices in the mid-1970s made irrigation unprofitable and forced most nearby cotton farms out of business. By the mid-1970s the population of Coyanosa had declined to 270. Its population was still recorded as 270 in the early 1990s, when the community also reported seven rated businesses. In 2000 the population was 138.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pecos County Historical Commission, Pecos County History (2 vols., Canyon, Texas: Staked Plains, 1984).

Glenn Justice