Nolan County

By 1880, the Handbook of Texas says, the county had fifty-two ranches and 24,515 cattle, and corn, its chief crop, grew on only sixty-four acres. By 1890 sheep outnumbered cattle 38,000 to 13,000. Farming took over after 1900: in 1910 cotton covered 33,000 acres and earned almost 72 percent of crop income, and sharecroppers worked 54.7 percent of farms, up from 20.5 percent in 1900. Cotton reached 80,000 acres by 1930, then fell to 39,000 by 1939, and almost a third of the county's farmers left their land during the 1930s.

What the plaque says

Nomadic Indians crossed this region before Anglo-American pioneers arrived here in the 1870's. The first settlers were buffalo hunters such as I.S. (Tuck) Focht, who later became a rancher and businessman, and cattlemen such as confederate veteran John R. Lewis. Created in 1876, Nolan County was one of 54 countries carved from Bexar Territory. It was named for Philip Nolan (1771-1801), an Irish-born adventurer who came to Texas to capture wild horses and was killed in a skirmish with Spanish soldiers. Sweetwater, a small settlement that had grown up around a general store, was awarded the county's first post office in March 1879. It was also named the county seat when Nolan County was organized in January 1881. Sweetwater moved 2 miles northwest to its present location on the Texas & Pacific Rail Line in April 1881. It became an important rail center when the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient and later the Santa Fe Railroad also routed their track through the town. The economy of Nolan County is based on cattle and sheep ranching; cotton and feed grain crops; and gypsum, line, and petroleum production. The population of the county increased from 640 in 1880 to 16,220 in the 1970 census. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pioneer Museum — 0.4 mi
  Nolan County's settlement story in a dozen rooms of Judge R. A. Ragland's 1906 house in Sweetwater, a town that started as a dugout store for buffalo hunters and a post office called Blue Goose.
• National WASP WWII Museum — 3.4 mi
  Hangar 1 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, where the women of the WASP trained to fly every aircraft in the Army's arsenal in World War II, then waited thirty-three years to be called veterans.
• Heart of West Texas Museum — 27 mi
  Colorado City's museum in a restored downtown house, from a mammoth dug up at Lake Champion in 2001 to an Ice Age bison and the wartime telegrams sent to a local family.

More markers nearby

• W.A.S.P. (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) Training Base: Avenger Field — steps away
• Texas & Pacific Railway — steps away
• S.D. Myres — steps away
• Herefords in Sweetwater — 1.0 mi