KERMIT — Jacob Harrison did what he thought kids from rural West Texas are supposed to do. He went away to college and didn't look back. But after working in Central Texas for a while, he called home with a confession.

"There are too many trees," he said. "You can't see the sky."

Harrison, now 26, is back in Winkler County, drawn by a job in the aptly named community of Notrees.

But he is in the minority. The 2010 Census confirmed what anyone passing through the scrublands of West Texas already knew: People are leaving, and no one is taking their place, even with oil at more than $100 a barrel. The people who remain often drive an hour or more to visit a doctor, buy a pair of jeans or see a movie.

Read the full article in the Houston Cronicle at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7517531.html