Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Imperial, TX

Imperial is a census-designated place in northern Pecos County in West Texas, at the intersection of Farm Roads 1053 and 11, four miles south of the Pecos River and 28 miles northeast of Fort Stockton.

The community may have been known as Redlands from about 1908 to 1910, but it was renamed Imperial for California's Imperial Valley when its post office and school were established in 1910.

A townsite was laid out in 1911 for property owner Benjamin E. Bush, and promoters diverted water from the Pecos River, built a dam forming the Imperial Reservoir eight miles west, and dug an irrigation canal through town to attract land buyers.

Imperial grew slowly at first, counting just 25 residents in 1925, then 250 people and eleven rated businesses by 1949 as irrigated farming took hold.

By 1968 Imperial was nearing 1,000 residents with twenty-six businesses, but its population later fell back to 720 by 1986 and 1990.

The 2020 census counted 294 residents in Imperial, up from 278 in 2010, spread across 4.2 square miles at a density of about 70 people per square mile.

The 2020 census recorded an exactly even split in Imperial: 147 males and 147 females.

Imperial's 2010 population of 278 was down 35 percent from 2000, when about 428 people lived there, reflecting the long decline of its irrigation-farming economy.

Imperial Reservoir, built around 1912 to supply the Imperial Canal and promote land sales, covers about 1,530 surface acres, and since 1955 it has been operated for recreational use by the Imperial Volunteer Fire Department.