Kent County

Kent County, in West Texas, is bounded on the north by Dickens County, on the west by Garza County, on the east by Stonewall County, and on the south by Scurry and Fisher counties. It comprises 878 square miles of rolling, broken terrain, part prairie and part mesquite woodland, drained by the Salt and Double Mountain forks of the Brazos River. The county center is at 33°10' north latitude and 100°45' west longitude, eighty-five miles southeast of Lubbock. The soils are sand and sandy loam, the elevation is 1,900 to 2,400 feet, and the average annual rainfall is 20.75 inches. The average minimum temperature in January is 28° F; the average maximum in July is 97°. The 216-day growing season produces about $10 million average annual income from agriculture, 55 percent from cattle, sheep, and hogs and the rest from cotton, sorghums, and grain. Irrigation is used on only 500 acres. There is no manufacturing, but more than 10.5 million barrels of oil produced in 1982 earned $514,387,691. Total production from 1946 to 1982 was 363,582,743 barrels. Timber includes cottonwood, cedar, and mesquite. There are deposits of brick clay, sand, gravel, and kaolin.

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.