The settlement that became Alpine started as a major stop along the Chihuahua Trail. Silver-carrying ox teams from the Mexican interior watered at Kokernot Springs. With the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1882, the town was established to gain access to the springs. It was designated the county seat in 1887, when Brewster County, the largest in Texas (6,193 square miles), was cut from Presidio County and held its first elections.
Alpine had only a few hundred inhabitants until 1917 ,when the Texas legislature created Sul Ross State Normal College (now Sul Ross State University; FV12), the university has remained a mainstay of the local economy.
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