The companionship of a dog is a little more important when you are one of the fifteen residents that make up your town. Sherriff Richard Putnam watches over Loving County, a place of 70 total inhabitants and 674 oil wells. Loving County is the least populated county in the lower 48 states, consisting of nothing more than a post office, courthouse, diner, and gas station, all of which you can see on the 12 second long drive through town.
(Text adapted from "Mentone, TX: ZipUSA," September 2000, National
Geographic magazine)
(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Mentone, TX: ZipUSA," September 2000, National Geographic magazine)
