Hockley County

Welcome to Hockley County

Hockley County, Texas is part of the last frontier. This political unit was one of the final two counties in the contiguous states to be opened for settlement and to feel the point of the farmers’ plow. Created by the legislature on August 21, 1876 the county remained without permanent human presence as late as 1880. This lack of permanent residents, verified by 1880 census records, occurred despite the removal of the Comanche Indians and the subsequent slaughter of the buffalo half a decade earlier. By 1888, the population estimate was 35 and had grown to 104 in 1909. The 1940 census revealed 12,693 county residents, this number included 3,438 school children who were enrolled in the nine school districts in the county.

Surveyors arrived in Hockley County to begin work on the Yellow House Canyon on February 2, 1886. The surveyor, Willis Day Twitchell later was hired to survey additional lines, helping make what he described as “the most unsettled territory in the world” habitable.

Today, the county is part of one of the largest cotton producing areas in the state, and it also is one of the leading oil producing counties. Business activity is centered on petroleum production and servicing as well as varied agribusinesses. Today the county population is 12,199. The third largest employer in Hockley county is Education, which includes South Plains College with an enrollment of over 6,000 students.