Rockwall County

Rockwall County is on the Blackland Prairies of north central Texas at 32°55' north latitude and 96°25' west longitude, twenty-five miles northeast of Dallas. Rockwall County is the smallest county in Texas. Its 147 square miles of flat, undulating, and gently rolling prairie ranges in elevation from 390 to 620 feet above sea level. The almost square county has three distinct topographic divisions: the valley of the East Fork of the Trinity River; a small area of gently undulating to steeply sloping terraces west of the valley; and rolling uplands east of the valley, which cover 80 percent of the county. The light to dark soils are slightly acidic and have loamy to clayey surfaces and cracking, clayey subsoils. Ninety-three percent of the county is arable and extremely fertile. The greater part of Rockwall County is a treeless prairie, although there was once heavy timber along the East Fork of the Trinity River. Along the creeks and in the bottoms there are a variety of hard and softwood trees, including bois d'arc, elm, oak, mesquite, and pecan. In the eastern part of the county grow tall bunch grasses, while shorter grasses are found to the west. There are a few native grass hay meadows, but most of the pasture land is in bermuda, clover, or Johnsongrass. All parts of the county are well watered by springs and small lakes. The area did not have a large, navigable body of water until the East Fork of the Trinity River, which runs north to south along the western border the county, was dammed to form Lake Ray Hubbard. The lake, built to supply water for Dallas, now covers 13.55 percent of Rockwall County. Except for a small section of the northeastern part of the county, which drains into the Sabine Creek, all streams empty into the East Fork. The growing season is 236 days, with an average annual precipitation of 38.68 inches. The temperature ranges from an average high of 96° F in July to an average low of 34° in January. There are no mineral resources, except for a small amount of native stone.

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.