Gaines County

The 1930s nearly emptied Gaines County's farms. Between 1929 and 1935 the number of farmers who fully owned their land fell almost by half, to eighty-three, and winds piled sand against fences into mounds twenty to thirty feet high, leaving fields stripped to hard red clay. Cotton fell from 20,566 acres in 1929 to 5,580 in 1940. Recovery came in the 1940s with sprinkler irrigation, because the sandy soil would not hold flood water, and with tractors that replaced plowing one row at a time behind a team. In 1982 the county led Texas in cotton.

What the plaque says

Gaines County Named for James L. Gaines, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, this county was formed out of Bexar County in 1876. Anglo settlement of the area began about 1895, and the county was formally organized in 1905. Seminole was established as the county seat that year, and a courthouse was built in 1906. Ranching and farming were the most prominent and profitable occupations until the mid-1930s, when they were eclipsed by oil production. Gaines County encompasses 1,479 square miles, and Seminole and Seagraves are its two largest cities. (1989)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Seminole — steps away
• Gaines County — 0.3 mi
• Dan Cobb — 0.3 mi
• Oil Industry in Gaines County — 7.8 mi