Clint, Texas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clint is in El Paso County, Texas, United States. The population was 980 at the 2000 census.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 Education
4 History
5 Pop Culture Reference
6 External links

[edit] Geography

Clint is located at 31°35′27″N, 106°13′45″W (31.590844, -106.229129)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 5.1 km² (2.0 mi²). 5.1 km² (2.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.51% is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 980 people, 308 households, and 255 families residing in the town. The population density was 194.0/km² (502.4/mi²). There were 337 housing units at an average density of 66.7/km² (172.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 75.41% White, 0.20% African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 20.71% from other races, and 2.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 83.98% of the population.

There were 308 households out of which 35.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.6% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16.9% were non-families. 15.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.18 and the average family size was 3.58.

In the town the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 23.3% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 13.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.0 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $34,000, and the median income for a family was $36,635. Males had a median income of $29,205 versus $20,313 for females. The per capita income for the town was $14,784. About 16.6% of families and 20.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.6% of those under age 18 and 16.8% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Education

The Town of Clint is served by the Clint Independent School District.

[edit] History

According to Martin Donell Kohout of the The Handbook of Texas Online:
"Clint, also known as Collinsburgh, is on the Southern Pacific Railroad at the intersection of State Highway 20 and Farm Road 1110, sixteen miles southeast of downtown El Paso in southern El Paso County. The story of the town, which was named for early settler Mary Clinton Collins, began when the San Elizario Corporation sold the townsite to J. A. Cole, who sold it to Thomas M. Collins in 1883. For several years after the establishment of the Clint post office in 1886, the settlement was identified as the San Elizario station on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. In 1890 the estimated population of Clint was 100, and the town had a general store, a fruit grower, and a hotel. Clint soon developed into an agricultural center. By 1896 the estimated population had increased to 150, including nine fruit growers and four alfalfa growers. The townsite was set up in 1909. By 1914 the estimated population of 400 supported three churches, two banks, a newspaper, and a tomato cannery. An estimated 600 residents lived at Clint in the late 1920s, but the number declined to 250 by the mid-1930s. By the late 1940s it had grown again to 550, then dropped to 417 in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s the estimated population was 1,120. It was 1,314 in the early 1980s and 1,883 in the late 1980s. In 1990 it was 1,035, and in 2000 it was 980."

[edit] Pop Culture Reference

Clint was mentioned in the 1957 autobiographical novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, the American novelist of the Beat Generation:
"Dean and Marylou parked the car near Van Horn and made love while I went to sleep. I woke up just as we were rolling down the tremendous Rio Grande Valley through Glint and Ysleta to El Paso. Marylou jumped to the back seat, I jumped to the front seat, and we rolled along. To our left across the vast Rio Grande spaces were the moorish-red mounts of the Mexican border, the land of the Tarahumare; soft dusk played on the peaks. Straight ahead lay the distant lights of El Paso and Juarez, sown in a tremendous valley so big that you could see several railroads puffing at the same time in every direction, as though it was the Valley of the World. We descended into it. "Clint, Texas!" said Dean. He had the radio on to the Clint station. Every fifteen minutes they played a record; the rest of the time it was commercials about a high-school correspondence course. "This program is beamed all over the West," cried Dean excitedly. "Man, I used to listen to it day and night in reform school and prison. All of us used to write in. You get a high-school diploma by mail, facsimile thereof, if you pass the test. All the young wranglers in the West, I don't care who, at one time or another write in for this; it's all they hear; you tune the radio in Sterling, Colorado, Lusk, Wyoming, I don't care where, you get Clint, Texas, Clint, Texas. And the music is always cowboy hillbilly and Mexican, absolutely the worst program in the entire history of the country and nobody can do anything about it. They have a tremendous beam; they've got the whole land hogtied." We saw the high antenna beyond the shacks of Glint. "Oh, man, the things I could tell you!" cried Dean, almost weeping."

Clint, Texas, was also mentioned in Johnny Cash's 1966 song Red River Valley from the album Everybody Loves a Nut. In which Cash repeatedly states that he bought his first harmonica for $2.98 in Clint.