Imperial (Texas)

Imperial is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pecos County, Texas, United States. The population was 278 at the 2010 census.GeographyImperial is located at . It is situated at the intersection of Farm Roads 11 and 1053, four miles south of the Pecos River and approximately 30 miles northeast of Fort Stockton in northern Pecos County.According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.2sqmi, all of it land.HistoryThe community was settled in the early 1900s. The site was originally known as Redlands from 1908 to around 1910, when it was renamed after California's Imperial Valley. A post office and school were opened in 1910 and a townsite was laid out on land owned by Benjamin E. Bush one year later. Water from the Pecos River was diverted and a small dam was built west of the community. An irrigation canal was constructed through Imperial in an attempt to attract new residents, but the area's water had a high salt content, which made farming unproductive. The population was approximately 25 in the mid-1920s, but had increased tenfold by 1949. Imperial's population approached 1,000 by the late 1960s with twenty-six businesses operating in the community. The number of inhabitants continued to decline during the latter half of the twentieth century.