Interesting list. From a first glance it appears that several lie south of I-10 and would be rural, low population levels, locations of ranches to include such as the King and Kenedy, etc. Not sure that my obsverations mean anything but rather just ramblings that came to mind looking at the list.
Yes there are a couple of the counties, including my own, that are up here in the Panhandle. Our problem is we have a lot of county roads to maintain and only one small town of about 5,000 people.