Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near Alpine Historic District Alpine, TX

Alpine is the county seat and largest town of Brewster County, which at 6,169 square miles is the largest county in Texas and bigger than the state of Connecticut.

The town began in the spring of 1882, when railroad workers pitched their tents along a spring-fed creek at the foot of what is now called 'A' Mountain.

Alpine was first called Osborne and then Murphyville before residents had the post office renamed Alpine on February 3, 1888, and it became the Brewster County seat in 1887.

Alpine sits at about 4,462 feet above sea level in a high desert valley flanked by the Davis Mountains to the north and the Glass Mountains to the east, in the Chihuahuan Desert.

The 2020 census counted 6,035 people in Alpine, in about 3,263 households, and roughly two-thirds of its homes are owner-occupied.

Sul Ross State University began in Alpine in 1920 as a teachers' college and is named for Lawrence Sullivan Ross, a former Texas governor and president of Texas A&M; about 2,000 students attend today.

Sul Ross was the founding location of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association in 1949, a fitting honor for a university in ranch country, and its campus hosts the Museum of the Big Bend.

Kokernot Field, built in 1947 by rancher Herbert Lee Kokernot Jr. for about $1.25 million and modeled on Wrigley Field, has been called the 'Yankee Stadium of Texas' and, by Sports Illustrated, the best little ballpark in Texas or anywhere else.

Kokernot Field was built with native stone from the Kokernot Ranch and infield clay shipped in by rail from Georgia, and today it hosts the Alpine Cowboys of the Pecos League, the Sul Ross Lobos, and the Alpine High School Bucks.

Alpine is the commercial and services hub for the roughly 12,000-square-mile Big Bend region and a main gateway for travelers heading to Big Bend National Park.