Eddy County comprises the Carlsbad-Artesia, NM Micropolitan Statistical Area.

In 1866, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving drove vast herds of cattle along the Pecos and set up "cow camps" in Seven Rivers and what is now Carlsbad.

John Chisum soon joined them and brought an estimated 100,000 head of cattle of his own through the Pecos Valley.

In 1881, Charles B. Eddy came to the area, and with his brother, John, and partner Amos Bissell, developed the Eddy-Bissell Cattle Company.

In 1884, the Eddy brothers and Bissell broke ground on the Halagueno Ranch which encompassed an area from Seven Rivers to La Huerta (a suburb of Carlsbad).

Eddy was looking to entice Europeans to settle the area, and with the new Halagueno Ranch and the Pecos Valley Land and Ditch Company established, he sought funds from a Swiss bank to help attract them to the clean air and sunny climate.

In 1888, Patrick Garrett (known as the sheriff who had shot Billy the Kid) along with promoter Charles Greene, joined forces with Eddy to design and build a system of canals and flumes to divert water to their ranches and properties.

Greene was able to procure investors from the east, one of which was Robert W. Tansill (manufacturer of the "Punch 5 ¢ Cigar").

These men, along with another big investor, J.J. Hagerman, laid the plans for a new town on the west bank of the Pecos River.

During an election in 1890 for new county commissioners, a referendum was on the ballot to change the seat from Seven Rivers to the town of Eddy.

Charles Eddy donated the land which consisted of an entire town block.

Oil was discovered in Eddy County in 1909, near the town of Dayton (8 mi south of Artesia).

Drilling commenced at a furious pace and by 1938, the area's oil production was valued at $32 million annually.

In 1925, a geologist, Dr. V. H. McNutt, discovered major deposits of potash, while looking for oil east of Carlsbad.

[4] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 4,198 square miles (10,870 km2), which is just about four times the size of the entire U.S. State of Rhode Island.