Sherman County

Sherman County grew slowly: it had 104 people in 1900, and wheat took hold only in the 1910s and 1920s. Large-scale irrigation arrived in the 1960s, the grain it raised drew big cattle feedyards in the late 1960s, and in 1975 the county ranked seventh in the nation in per capita income. In the 1980s some 750 producing gas wells furnished 60 percent of the school tax base, and the Stratford Feedyard could hold 80,000 head. The Handbook of Texas notes that irrigated crops shelter game birds, and the December pheasant season draws hunters from across the country.

What the plaque says

Formed from Young and Bexar Territories; Created August 21, 1876; Organized June 13, 1889; Named in Honor of General Sidney Sherman 1805-1873; Commander of the Left Wing of the Army at the Battle of San Jacinto; Member of the Texas Congress 1842-1843; County Seat, Coldwater, 1889; Stratford, Since 1901

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No Man's Land Museum — 32 mi
  The Panhandle's own museum at Goodwell, kept since 1934 by a society the strip's first settlers founded, on the campus of Oklahoma Panhandle State University.

More markers nearby

• Sidney Sherman — 5.6 mi
• Removal of Archives From Coldwater to Stratford — 5.6 mi
• Early Settlers on Coldwater Creek — 9.0 mi
• Hartley County — 32 mi