Rockwall County

Rockwall County got its borders in pieces. The land sat in Nacogdoches County in 1836, in Henderson County after 1845, and in Kaufman County after 1847. In 1873 northern residents, far from the Kaufman seat, got their own county, and Rockwall has been the seat ever since, despite a failed push in 1892 to move it to Fate. Black residents made up a quarter of the county in 1930, mostly rural, a share that held at that level into 1960. The Works Projects Administration built the courthouse that replaced the 1893 building.

What the plaque says

Rockwall County First settled in the 1840s, this region was a part of Kaufman County until 1873, when Rockwall County was created. With an area of 147 square miles, this is the smallest of Texas' 254 counties. The county and city of Rockwall were named for an underground formation of rock discovered in the early 1850s. Crossed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, Rockwall County is an area of fertile farmland. The location here of the aluminum industry and the creation of Lake Ray Hubbard from the East Fork of the Trinity River diversified the local economy in recent years. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 0.7 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 18 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 18 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Fair Park — 20 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.

More markers nearby

• Central National Road of the Republic of Texas — 1.3 mi
• The Church of Christ in Rockwall — 2.4 mi
• Fate Presbyterian Church — 4.6 mi
• Millwood and Millwood Cemetery — 4.8 mi