McGough Springs

Eastland County is in Central Texas, bordered on the east by Erath County, on the north by Stephens and Palo Pinto counties, on the west by Callahan County, and on the south by Brown and Comanche counties. The county's center is at 32°20' north latitude and 98°50' west longitude. The county was named for Capt. William Mosby Eastland, a member of the Mier Expedition and a victim of the Black Bean Episode. Eastland County covers about 952 square miles of the West Cross Timbers region of Texas; its hilly, rolling terrain ranges from 1200 to 1800 feet above sea level. Eastland, the county seat, is located on Interstate Highway 20 in the north central part of the county, some ninety-five miles west of Fort Worth and fifty-five miles east of Abilene. Most of the county is drained by the Leon River and its tributaries, though other parts drain into Battle Creek and Sandy Creek in the northwest, Palo Pinto Creek in the northeast, the Sabana River in the south, and tributaries of the Colorado River in the southwest. Soils vary from sandy to loamy. Trees found in the county include post oak, shin oak, walnut, pecan, cedar, and ash. The average annual rainfall is 27.09 inches, and the average temperature ranges from 32° F in winter to 96° in summer. The growing season averages 229 days.

Comanche, Kiowa, and other plains Indians visited the area now known as Eastland County in the years before White settlement, though the region was too heavily wooded for the extensive migration of buffalo into the area. The area was part of the Department of Bexar during Mexican Texas. In 1822, much of it became a part of Robertson's colony, and in 1831 the area was part of the empresarial grant from Mexico to Stephen F. Austin and Samuel May Williams. Part of the area was included in the Peters colony during the republic era.