The railroad named the town for the Russian steppes. Hereford cattle carried the county before the oil.
Ector County's seat is Odessa. A cattle check and a production stub can share a month. The close is remote.
Odessa is where this county files. Promoters of the Texas and Pacific Railway named the first settlement for a supposed likeness to the steppes of Russia, and in 1882 the town became a stop on that West Texas line. The farmland ads did not match the rainfall. Ranching fit the ground better, and for years the county was known for Hereford cattle. Much of the land belonged to the University of Texas. Oil in the Permian Basin is the other fact the handbook stresses: shallow reservoirs in Permian Age limestone, with a gas cap above the oil.
Mathew D. Ector, a Confederate general and Texas jurist, is the namesake. The county was marked off in 1887 from land previously assigned to Tom Green County, and it was organized in 1891 with Odessa as the seat. Andrews lies north, Winkler west, Midland east, and Crane and Ward south. The setting is the lower shelf of the Great Plains and the northern border of the Edwards Plateau. A cattle check and an oil stub can both clear in Odessa. They remain two papers.
Odessa can clear a ranch deposit and a production stub in one week.
The July 2026 Comptroller figure used here shows no county sales tax for Ector County. State sales tax is 6.25%. Where a city has its own rate, that city rate stacks on the state rate and any county rate. The combined cap is 8.25%. City rates are not listed on this page.
Business personal property renditions go to the county appraisal district for Ector County. Put April 15 on the calendar. That district's form says which date controls the list.
The franchise report is due May 15. Texas has no state income tax. Neither date goes away because of that.
When you close an Odessa month, separate the cattle money from the oil money before you touch the calendar. A Hereford sale and a royalty or operating stub can land in the same week. Your file should say which one you are holding. If the paper is a cattle check, write cattle. If it is a production stub from the Permian ground, write that, and do not let the town name stand in for the pile.
You still file at Odessa. The railroad's farm promise is history, and your deposit does not have to repeat it. The counties on your border do not receive your stack. Old deeds that mention University of Texas land explain a title, not a current vendor. Leave the Blue Mountain pictographs and the 1892 school fire out of the description. Your question is whether this week was a ranch week or a production week. Put that word on the line you actually have. The Comptroller line will not choose it for you.
You send the file as it stands. The first pass should be able to see your cattle line and your production line without guessing which Friday deposit was which. If you are unsure, leave the word blank rather than borrowing the town. Odessa is the place you file. It does not caption every stub.
Book a time if the cattle check and the oil stub are one line.
Book a time to separate the Odessa piles
Sources:
Handbook of Texas: Ector County
County sales tax is the July 2026 Texas Comptroller figure supplied in the project county file. Seat, year, name, and the county it was formed from are the same file.