TX: Loving County

MENTONE, TX - APRIL 6: Family members and friends of the Haley family congregate for breakfast in the kitchen of Mary Nell Haley, April 6, 2007 before heading out for a cattle round-up in Mentone, Texas. Mary Nell's nephew,Jake Haley, center, talks to Mike Vaughan, one of the family friends from Midland, Texas. The third generation of her family to work the 9000 acre drought-prone land, Mary Nell organized her extended family and nearby amateur cowboy friends to gather the yearling heifers for branding and cutting. Her property also benefits from productive oil and gas wells. Loving County's 84 residents are reported to have one of the highest per-capita incomes in the US of $89,471. The high income level in the sparsely populated county is due to the sub surface oil and gas reserves. Much of Loving County's oil wealth began during the oil boom of the late 1920's - 1930's. The county's natural gas production came later in the 1970's. Incorporated in 1893, Loving County has no school system and buses its children to adjacent Winkler County. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)