Lynn County

Lynn County is on the High Plains of Texas in the southern part of the South Plains. The county lies just to the west of the Caprock; a small part is below this escarpment. The elevation ranges from 2,881 to 3,274 feet above sea level. Tahoka, the county seat, is thirty miles south of Lubbock and very near the center point of the county, which is at 33°10' north latitude and 101°50' west longitude. Lynn County embraces 915 square miles of almost level terrain dotted with an occasional draw or playa. Two year-round lakes exist in the county: Double Lakes, seven miles northwest of Tahoka, and Tahoka Lake, five miles northeast of Tahoka. Mound Lake is a large and permanent playa on the Lynn-Terry county line, and Twin Lakes and Guthrie Lake are also large playas found in the southwestern quarter of the county. The sandy loam, black, and gray soils of the county support both large-scale cotton farming and the ranching industry. Rich prairie grasses are native to the area. Mesquite is a pervasive pest on ranchlands, despite ongoing attempts to eradicate it. The elevation in Lynn County ranges from 2,650 feet to 3,300 feet above sea level. The annual precipitation averages 17.88 inches. Temperatures range from an average of 27° F in January to an average high of 94° in July. The average growing season is 217 days long.

Lynn County was initially occupied by Plains Apaches, who were replaced by a more modern Apachean people around A.D. 1400–1500. During the eighteenth century the warlike Comanches pushed into the Panhandle-Plains region of Texas and ousted the Apaches. The Comanches ruled the region until they were defeated by the United States Army during the Red River War of 1873–74 and subsequently withdrawn from the plains. Small skirmishes occurred in Lynn County during the Indian Wars. Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's Fourth United States Cavalry visited Tahoka Lake in 1872, and in November 1874 attacked a small encampment of Indians near Double Lakes and another at Tahoka Lake. In July, October, and November 1875, units of Col. William R. Shafter's Tenth United States Cavalry, the black "buffalo soldiers," scoured the South Plains. Indian raids on buffalo hunters during early 1877 led to another military expedition in the South Plains. Capt. Nicholas Nolan's Company A of the Tenth Cavalry left Fort Concho in July 1877 and proceeded to Double Lakes in Lynn County. They chased a band of Comanches northwest into New Mexico, lost the trail, and returned to Double Lakes in Lynn County. After eighty-six hours with no replenishment of their water supply, Nolan's company straggled back to Double Lakes. This was the last appearance by the United States Cavalry in pursuit of Indians in Lynn County. The county was thus opened for settlement after 1877.