Hood County

Hood County embraces 425 square miles of the north central plains of Texas. Granbury, the county seat, is forty-one miles southwest of Fort Worth on U.S. Highway 377. The county's center point is at 32°27' north latitude and 97°47' west longitude. The county is crossed by State Highway 144, U.S. Highway 377, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The county is part of the Western Cross Timbers. Its elevations range from 600 to 1,000 feet. The eastern and west central part consists of undulating to hilly terrain surfaced by brown, red, or dark loam. The remaining soils are red or mottled loam and sand. The Brazos and Paluxy rivers are the main water sources in the county. The Brazos River flows in a winding pattern north to south; the Paluxy flows from the northwest to southeast across the southwest corner of the county. Lake Granbury, a man-made reservoir of 8,700 acres on the Brazos River, was completed in 1969. The vegetation features bluestems, Indian grass, and gramas, mesquite, oaks, and junipers. About 31 to 40 percent of the land is considered prime farmland. Hood County's primary resources include limestone, industrial sand, and oil and gas. The average annual precipitation is thirty inches, and the average temperature ranges from a low of 34° F in January to a high of 96° in July. The growing season averages 232 days.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.