Lee County

Lee County, in the Claypan area of southeast Central Texas east of Austin, is bordered by Bastrop, Williamson, Milam, Burleson, Washington, and Fayette counties. Giddings, the largest town and county seat, is sixty miles east of Austin. The county's geographic center lies at approximately 30°17' north latitude and 96°54' west longitude. U.S. Highway 77 is the major north-south road in the county, and U.S. Highway 290 and State Highway 21 are the principal east-west routes. Lee County is also served by two railroads, the Austin Area Terminal Railroad and the Union Pacific. The county embraces 631 square miles and has an elevation range of 270 to 970 feet. It is divided into three basic soil regions. In the northwest, light-colored loamy or sandy soils lie over mottled or reddish clayey or loamy subsoils. In the central strip, light-colored loams overlie gray to black clayey soils and deep reddish-brown, clayey subsoils. The remainder of the county has light-colored soils with sandy surfaces and mottled, clayey subsoils. The central part of Lee County is in the Blackland Prairies region, where oak, pecan, elm, and mesquite trees and thick grasses grow in the stream basins. The rest of the county is in the Post Oak Savannah vegetation region, characterized by tall grasses, post oak, and blackjack oak. Scattered thickets of wild plum, black and red haw, yaupon, and wild persimmon occur. Dewberries, huckleberries, and blackberries as well as mustang, fox, and muscadine grapes grow in the county. The climate is humid and subtropical. The average annual temperature is 69° F. Temperatures range from an average low of 37° in January to an average high of 96° in July. The average annual precipitation is thirty-six inches; the heaviest rain occurs from May through September. Most of the county is drained by the three branches of Yegua Creek-East Yegua, Middle Yegua, and West Yegua creeks-and their tributaries, including Allen, Brushy, Pin Oak, Bluff, and Elm creeks. Much of the southern third of the county is drained by Knobbs, Rabbs, and Nails creeks. In the mid-nineteenth century early settlers found buffalo, deer, bears, mountain lions, and various kinds of small game including wild turkeys, but all of these except deer and small game were hunted to extinction by the early 1900s. The heavily timbered river and creek bottoms once harbored a large number of small furbearing mammals that were trapped commercially. Alligators were still found in some creeks until the 1940s.

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.