CHINATI, TEXAS. Chinati is on Farm Road 170 and the Rio Grande in the foothills of the Chinati Mountains, six miles northwest of Adobes in southwestern Presidio County. The settlement began as a Mexican mining village. After irrigation was introduced along the Rio Grande, Chinati farmers began growing cotton. It received a post office in 1922. By 1930 the area farmed 600 acres of irrigated land. From 1931 until 1947 a store operated in Chinati; in January 1933 it was raided by Mexican bandits. By 1939 the post office had closed. The population of Chinati remained at ten until 1943, when a population of 250 was reported. The growth was a result of World War II and the activity around the Presidio County military bases. After the war the military bases closed, and Chinati declined. At the end of the 1980s the community remained unincorporated and received mail through Presidio.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Virginia Madison and Hallie Stillwell, How Come It's Called That? Place Names in the Big Bend Country (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1958).
