Montgomery County

Montgomery County is on Interstate 45 forty miles north of downtown Houston in the East Texas Timberlands Region. The center of the county is at 30°18' north latitude and 95°23' west longitude, near the county seat of Conroe. The county is bounded on the north by Walker and San Jacinto counties, on the east by Liberty County, on the south by Harris County, and on the west by Waller and Grimes counties. Montgomery County covers 1,047 square miles of flat to gently rolling terrain, with elevations ranging from 150 to 300 feet. To the south and west soils are light-colored and loamy with deep, reddish, clayey to loamy subsoils. The remainder of the county has reddish soils with loamy surfaces and very deep, clayey subsoils. Vegetation is typical of the Piney Woods area, with thick stands of longleaf, shortleaf, and loblolly pines and hickory, maple, sweet and black gum, oak, and magnolia trees. Grasses include Virginia wildrye, blackseed needlegrass, and purpletop. Wildlife in the county includes eastern gray and fox squirrels, various species of bats and skunks, and small herbivores such as gophers, mice, rabbits, and armadillos, as well as raccoons, white-tailed deer, opossum, bobcat, coyote, and red and grey fox. Alligators, frogs, toads, and numerous species of snake, including the poisonous copperhead, cottonmouth, coral snakes, and rattlesnake, are found in abundance. A wide variety of birds-mockingbirds, cardinals, doves, quail, bluejays, and roadrunners, to name a few-are also native to the area. Natural resources include timber, lakes, gravel, and oil; the Conroe oilfield was once the third largest in the United States. The county's principal water source is the San Jacinto River basin drainage system, which includes Peach, Caney, Spring, and Bushy creeks. The Lake Conroe Reservoir, seven miles northwest of Conroe, drains an area of 445 square miles; its surface area covers 20,118 acres, and its storage capacity is 380,400 acre-feet. The climate is subtropical humid, with warm summers and mild winters. The average annual relative humidity is 73 percent, and the average rainfall is 47.44 inches. The average annual temperature is 68° F. Temperatures in January range from an average low of 39° to an average high of 61° F and in July range from 72° to 95° F. The growing season averages 270 days per year, with the last freeze in early March and the first freeze in late November.

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.