Paleo-Indians (hunter-gatherers) existed thousands of years ago on the Trans-Pecos, and often did not adapt to culture clashes, European diseases, and colonization.

The Spanish made slave raids to the La Junta de los Ríos, committing cruelties against the native population.

Foraging peoples who did not survive the 18th century include the Chisos, Mansos, Jumanos, Conchos, Julimes, Cibolos, Tobosos, Sumas, Cholomes, Caguates, Nonojes, Cocoyames, and Acoclames.

[7] The entrada of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza[8] and Father Nicolás López[9] in 1683–84 set out from El Paso to La Junta, where they established seven missions at seven pueblos.

[10] In 1832, José Ygnacio Ronquillo was issued a conditional land grant, and established the county's first white settlement on Cibolo Creek.

Milton Faver bought small tracts of land around three springs-Cibolo, Cienega, and La Morita and established cattle ranches.

[21][22] John W. Spencer, a local rancher and trader, found a silver deposit in the Chinati Mountains in 1880 that resulted in the opening of Presidio Mine and the beginning of the company town of Shafter.

[24] The railroad reached Presidio County in 1882, when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway laid tracks through its northeastern corner.

The widespread use of barbed wire resulted in the refinement of cattle breeds, improvement of ranges, and innovative use of water supplies.

[26] Elephant Butte Dam was built in 1910 on the Rio Grande, creating a large, reliable irrigation source for the county.

[27][28] The growth of Presidio County's population in the 1910s reflected the impact of the Mexican Revolution on border life.

During World War II, Presidio County enjoyed economic prosperity as the home for two military installations-Fort Russell and Marfa Army Airfield.

[30][31] In late January 1918, during a period of tension between the US and Mexico, Texas Rangers and citizens of the village of Porvenir murdered 15 local Hispanic residents.

[33][34][35] The first recorded incident of the Marfa Lights was in 1883 when Robert Reed Ellison and cowhands camped at Mitchell Flats.

The spring-fed Capote Falls, with a drop of 175 feet (53 m), the highest in Texas, is located in western Presidio County.

In the southern and western parts of the county, the volcanic cliffs of the Candelaria Rimrock (also called the Sierra Vieja) rise perpendicular and run parallel to the river, separating the highland prairies from the desert floor hundreds of feet below them.

The gravel pediment, which allows only the growth of desert shrubs and cacti, extends from the Rimrock to the flood plain of the river.

San Esteban Dam was built across Alamito Creek about 10 miles (16 km) south of Marfa and on the site of a historic spring-fed tinaja in 1911 as an irrigation and land-promotion project.

Download coordinates as: More than half of Presidio County, 54.6%, experiences a hot arid desert climate (Köppen BWh).

By contrast, the lowlands along the Rio Grande along the southern and western areas of the county are dry with often extreme summer daytime heat and where winter snowfall is unusual.

Presidio County is reliably Democratic, Ronald Reagan having been the last Republican candidate to get even forty percent of its vote.

[59] Despite a hard rightward shift in heavily Hispanic South Texas in 2024, in which many counties shifted right by over 10 points, Presidio remained strongly Democratic, with Donald Trump only increasing his vote share by 2 points, making Presidio the only county on the Mexican border where Democrats received over 60 percent.

[62][63][64] The big stars, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and others stayed at the Hotel Paisano for two months.

High Lonesome, released in 1950, starring Chill Wills and John Drew Barrymore, was filmed in Antelope Springs, near Marfa.

In The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the mountains of Presidio County stand as Coahuila, where Pete carries friend Mel to be buried among the ruins of his Mexican town of Jimenez.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at the historic Cibolo Creek Ranch near Shafter, Texas in 2016.