Los Ybanez

Los Ybanez, a mile off U.S. Highway 87 and a mile south of Lamesa in central Dawson County, was a new community in the early 1980s. In 1980 it consisted of only a few small houses-the remnants of a migrant workers' and Civilian Conservation Corps camp. That year Israel Ybanez bought the site from the federal government. He repaired some existing structures and rented them to local farm laborers. The town was incorporated in 1983. In the mid-1980s its only business was Ybanez's take-out beer store; at that time Mary Ybanez, the founder's wife, was mayor. In 1985 Los Ybanez had an estimated 300 residents, twenty-two of whom were related to the founder. The community's population was reported as eighty-three in 1990. In 2000 the population was thirty-two.