Houston County

Houston County, the first county established by the Republic of Texas, is east of Waco in the East Texas Timberlands region. It is bordered on the north by Anderson County, on the east by Cherokee, Angelina, and Trinity counties, on the south by Walker and Madison counties, and on the west by Leon County. Its center lies at 31°20' north latitude and 99°25' west longitude. Crockett is the county seat and largest town. In addition to U.S. Highway 287 the county's transportation needs are served by State highways 7, 19, and 21 and the Union Pacific Railroad. Houston County covers 1,234 square miles, with elevations ranging from 200 to 300 feet. The Neches River forms the northeastern boundary of the county, and the Trinity River is the western boundary. The terrain is gently rolling to hilly. Soils are generally light colored and loamy, with very deep reddish clayey subsoils. In the southwest and west the soils are sandy with clayey subsoils. The predominant vegetation is mixed pine and hardwood forests. Between 21 and 30 percent of the land in the county is considered prime farmland. The climate is subtropical and humid, with cool winters and hot summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low of 36° F to an average high of 58°, and in July from 71° to 94°. The average annual rainfall is 42 inches. The average annual snowfall is less than one inch. The growing season averages 260 days a year, with the last freeze in early March and the first in late November.

The area has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Archeological artifacts recovered in the region suggest that the earliest human inhabitants arrived during the Archaic Period, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. Evidence of the prehistoric Caddo culture that flourished between A.D. 1000 and 1600 has also been found in the area; the earliest Spanish explorers encountered the remnants of that culture during their first forays into the region. The area now known as Houston County was also a stronghold of the Alabama-Coushatta, Cherokee, and Tejas Indians. The first recorded European exploration there was carried out by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and it is believed that a remnant of the Moscoso expedition reached the vicinity. On Alonso De León's second expedition in 1690 the first East Texas mission, San Francisco de los Tejas, was founded in the neighborhood of the present Weches, in the northeastern part of the county. The mission was abandoned in 1693 because of Indian hostility. The Old San Antonio Road, the most important of several caminos reales in the future state of Texas, crossed the county, and travel and trade were carried on over this route for a hundred years before any permanent settlements were made. A village on the right bank of the Trinity, established in 1774 and named Bucareli, reached the size of forty-two houses and a population of 348 before it broke up and the residents moved to Nacogdoches under the leadership of Antonio Gil Ibarvo.