Boracho was on U.S. Highway 80 and the Texas and Pacific Railway ten miles west of Kent and twenty-six miles east of Van Horn in south central Culberson County. It was apparently founded around the time that the railroad was built through the area in the early 1880s. Its name is probably a misspelling of borracho, Spanish for "drunk." One source says the town got its name during the construction of the railroad, when the crew for the Texas and Pacific, building west through Culberson County, was outpacing the competing Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio crew, which was building east from Hudspeth County. The GH&SA crew donated several wagonloads of whiskey to their rivals and took the lead while the T&P crew was sleeping off the booze. Another source, however, says that the name is Spanish for "violet-covered" and is derived from the name of nearby Boracho Peak in Jeff Davis County. A local post office operated from 1908 until 1912 with Mary E. Glenn as postmistress. Maps of the area from the mid-1950s showed just one dwelling at the site. By 1970 a cemetery was all that remained there.

Martin Donell Kohout

from the Handbook of Texas On Line