Like Terlingua, Study Butte owes its existence to the mercury mining industry established in the area around 1900. A post office operated in Study Butte from 1917 to 1921. The town, like the nearby mountain, was named for Will Study (pronounced “Stoody”), the manager of the Big Bend or Study Butte mercury mine. In 1940, when the population of Study Butte was estimated at sixty, the Rainbow Mercury Mine was the chief employer, and the town had a school, a general store, and scattered miners’ dwellings. Study Butte enjoyed a brief economic resurgence during World War II, but by the late 1940s the mine had closed. Over the next two decades the estimated population of Study Butte dwindled to ten or fifteen. When the mine reopened in 1970, however, the town population climbed to an estimated 115. The mine closed again in 1972, but the Terlingua Ranch development started to slowly add to the population, and along with the growth of visitation to Big Bend National Park, the population of Study Butte is today over 300.
