Lamar County

Lamar County is in North Texas on the Oklahoma border. Paris, the county's largest town and the county seat, is about 100 miles northeast of Dallas. The county's center point is 33°40' north latitude and 95°35' west longitude. Lamar County comprises 919 square miles of pasture and farmlands, with some scattered timber. The terrain is gently rolling; the elevation ranges between 400 and 635 feet above sea level. Northern Lamar County, above Paris, drains into the Red River, while the southern half drains southeast into the North Sulphur River. Soil types range from a blackland clay, which predominates in the southern half of the county, to loamy soils characteristic of the once-wooded areas of the northern part of the county. Mineral resources include limestone and gravel from the Red River and North Sulphur River regions. The major lakes are Lake Pat Mayes, a 5,000-acre reservoir formed by the impoundment of Sanders Creek in the northern portion of the county during the late 1960s, and Lake Crook, a small reservoir on Pine Creek just north of Paris. Temperatures range from an average high of 94° F in August to an average low of 31° in January. Rainfall averages slightly more than forty-five inches a year. The growing season extends for 228 days.

The Red River valley region was home to the Caddo Indians, particularly the Kadohadacho group, who are believed to have occupied the valley shortly after A.D. 500. The Caddoes, primarily an agricultural people, hunted to supplement their food supply. When Europeans began to explore the valley during the 1600s, the Caddoes found themselves between the French and Spanish, both of whom wanted to explore and settle the region. By 1720 the French had established friendly relations with the Caddoes along the Red River, and they maintained the upper hand until France ceded the region to Spain as part of the settlement of the Seven Years' War in Europe in 1763.