Sterling County
Sterling City, Sterling County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This prairie region split by the north Concho River is old Comanche, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Lipan, and Wichita hunting ground. Possibly it was crossed by six or so Spanish explorations between 1540 and 1654. In the 1860s and 70s, Anglo-Americans hunted buffalo commercially in this area. An 1860s hunter, Capt. W. S. Sterling, had a dugout home on the creek that bears his name. In the 1870s, bandits Frank and Jesse James kept horse herds on a tributary of Sterling Creek. In 1874 the United States Army occupied Camp Elizabeth, a Fort Concho outpost hospital, about ten miles west of here. Ranchers from other counties began to bring in large cattle herds in the 1870s, to capitalize on free grass. After keeping out small herds for a time, they permitted actual settlers to share the range. Family men staked land claims, grew crops in the valleys, and opened stores, schools, and post offices. On March 4, 1891, on the petition of 150 citizens, the county was created out of part of Tom Green County, and named for its first regular resident. Sterling City became the county seat. Petroleum production has been important to the economy since the 1950s; yet the land essentially remains range country, grazed by cattle and sheep.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The prairie split by the north Concho River was long the hunting ground of the Comanche, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Lipan, and Wichita peoples, and may have been crossed by Spanish expeditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the 1860s and 70s came commercial buffalo hunters, one of whom, Capt. W. S. Sterling, gave his name to the creek; the outlaws Frank and Jesse James reputedly kept horse herds nearby, and the Army held Camp Elizabeth as a Fort Concho outpost. As big cattle outfits and then family homesteaders moved in, the county was created in 1891 and named for its first regular resident.
Why it matters
Sterling County's layered past, from Native hunting grounds through buffalo hunters, soldiers, and settlers, distills the whole arc of the West Texas frontier into one place.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Long before there was a county here, this rolling prairie along the North Concho River was hunting ground. The Comanche, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Lipan, and Wichita peoples all used it, and the bison herds that grazed the grasslands supported whole ways of life. For generations the Southern Plains belonged to them.
Europeans may have arrived early. Between 1540 and 1654, maybe half a dozen Spanish expeditions crossed parts of this region, though exactly where any of them traveled is still debated. Spain's interest in the area came and went, and the land stayed in Native hands for more than two centuries afterward.
The big changes came after the Civil War. In the 1860s and especially the 1870s, commercial buffalo hunters moved across the Southern Plains and killed the herds for hides on an industrial scale. The U.S. Army built forts to enforce federal control, and the old Native world on the plains was broken within a few years. Cattle, fences, and farms came next.
People & events
Among the buffalo hunters of the 1860s was Capt. W. S. Sterling, who lived in a dugout home, a shelter dug into a bank, along the creek that now carries his name. Dugouts were common on the treeless plains, where lumber was scarce. Sterling is remembered as the area's first regular resident, and the county was later named for him.
The 1870s brought more famous visitors. The marker records that the outlaws Frank and Jesse James kept horse herds on a tributary of Sterling Creek, far from the Missouri lawmen who were after them. In 1874 the U.S. Army set up Camp Elizabeth, an outpost hospital for Fort Concho, about ten miles west. Then came the cattlemen, ranchers from other counties who brought big herds to graze free grass. For a time they kept out smaller operators, but eventually they let actual settlers share the range.
Those settlers changed the county for good. Families staked land claims, farmed the valleys, and opened stores, schools, and post offices. On March 4, 1891, after 150 citizens petitioned, the Texas Legislature created Sterling County from part of Tom Green County, with Sterling City as its seat. Since the 1950s oil has been important to the economy, but the land is still mostly cattle and sheep country.
Its place in the American story
Sterling County packs the whole story of the American frontier into one prairie. Native hunting grounds, possible Spanish expeditions, the destruction of the buffalo, the Army's arrival, open-range cattle, homesteaders, a new county, and finally oil. In many places those stages were spread over a century. Here most of them happened within a few decades.
The buffalo hunters' part is especially important. The destruction of the Southern Plains herds in the 1870s helped end the independence of the Plains nations and opened the land to ranching. It's one of the most significant and tragic ecological and human turning points in American history, and this county saw it happen.
The move from open range to shared range to family farms also mirrors a national pattern. Across the West, free grass gave way to land claims and fences, and the cattle barons' frontier became a world of small towns and county courthouses.
If you visit
Sterling City is a small, quiet county seat in wide-open West Texas, northwest of San Angelo. Part of the appeal is the landscape: rolling prairie, big skies, and the North Concho River valley that drew bison, hunters, and finally ranchers.
As you drive the county roads, look at the land as the marker describes it, as range country. Cattle and sheep still graze where the buffalo once did, and oil equipment shows the newest layer of the story. Picture a hunter's dugout cut into a creek bank, or outlaws' horses grazing in a hidden draw.
Sterling City goes well with a visit to San Angelo, where Fort Concho, the post Camp Elizabeth served, is preserved. Together they show the military frontier and the ranching country that followed.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Capt. W. S. Sterling
- · Frank James
- · Jesse James
Related events
- · Creation of Sterling County (1891)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Shelving Rock
Robert Lee, TX
For centuries the sheltering ledge above Walnut Creek drew nomadic Native peoples to its running water, firewood, and commanding lookout, midway between the Colorado and North Concho rivers. After 1850 the same spot served frontier scouts from Fort Chadbourne and Fort Concho, surveyors, and ranch line riders. It was here that rangers, militia, and settlers gathered just before the disastrous Battle of Dove Creek in January 1865.
Sanco
Robert Lee vicinity, TX
The land around Sanco was long a camping ground — first for Indigenous people, then for the Comanche chief Sanaco and Chief Yellow Wolf, who is buried nearby after being killed in a fight with the Lipans. In the 1850s soldiers from Fort Chadbourne skirmished with Native people here; by 1888 settlers had established one of the county's first communities and its second post office. In 1907 the town picked up and moved to a new surveyed site on Yellow Wolf Creek.
Seven Wells
Colorado City, TX
The springs once here — now beneath Lake Champion — bubbled up in seven basins so round they looked man-made, earning the name Seven Wells. Fed by the same underground water that supplied Champion Creek, they drew great herds of buffalo whose tracks cut deep into the soft sandstone banks, and at least four trails converged where the creeks met. Native peoples camped at this watering place for centuries, and in the 1880s a small settlement called Artesia briefly rose at the site.
Mitchell County
Colorado City, TX
Mitchell County was carved out of West Texas territory in 1876 and organized in 1881 when the railroad arrived, turning Colorado City into a booming supply hub known as the region's 'Mother City.' Named for War for Independence veterans Asa and Eli Mitchell, the county blended cattle, sheep, and later oil into its economy. Its landmarks — a former Comanche village site and Seven Wells, remembered as a last buffalo watering hole — mark the transition from Indigenous and frontier land to a railroad-era ranching center.