Hardeman County Texas map
34.29° N · 99.75° W · County seat: Quanah · 697 sq mi
Hardeman County is the northernmost county in Texas that is not part of the Panhandle. The Red River is formed inside it, at the northwestern corner where the Prairie Dog Town Fork meets Buck Creek, and then runs east along the top of the county as the Oklahoma state line.
Hardeman County on the Oklahoma line. US-287 runs diagonally through Quanah and Chillicothe; State Highway 6 heads south toward Copper Breaks.
Where Hardeman County is
Two Oklahoma counties face it across the Red River: Harmon to the north and Jackson to the northeast. On the Texas side the neighbours are Wilbarger to the east, Foard to the south, Cottle at the southwest corner and Childress to the west. Wichita Falls is 76 miles southeast, Amarillo 135 miles northwest and Abilene 127 miles south.
The legislature marked the county out in 1858 from land assigned to Fannin County, but nobody organised a government here until 1884. It carries the name of two brothers, Bailey Hardeman, first secretary of the treasury of the Republic of Texas, and Thomas Jones Hardeman, a state representative and judge.
Towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population |
|---|---|---|
| Quanah (county seat) | City | 2,279 |
| Chillicothe | City | 553 |
| Rest of county | Unincorporated | 717 |
Quanah takes its name from Quanah Parker, the last Comanche war chief, whose mother Cynthia Ann Parker was recaptured on the Pease River one county to the south. The town was also the headquarters of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway, the short line that ran southwest toward Floydada and gave the gypsum plant at Acme its outlet.
US-287 and State Highway 6
- US-287 crosses the county on the diagonal, entering from Childress County in the northwest and running through Quanah and Chillicothe on its way to Vernon and Wichita Falls. It is the main truck route between Amarillo and the Dallas–Fort Worth area.
- State Highway 6 begins its long run south from Quanah, passing Copper Breaks and crossing into Foard County at the Pease River.
There is no interstate in Hardeman County; US-287 is four lanes for its whole length here.
Copper Breaks and the Medicine Mounds
Copper Breaks State Park lies about 12 miles south of Quanah on State Highway 6, in the broken red country along the Pease River. The park keeps part of the official State Longhorn Herd, has a small lake and campgrounds, and holds regular night-sky programmes under a formal dark-sky designation.
Southeast of Quanah stand the Medicine Mounds, four dolomite-capped hills that rise out of the flat farmland and are visible for miles. Comanche bands treated them as a source of medicine and water, and the community of Medicine Mound below them took their name. The hills are on private ranchland and are best seen from the county roads that run between Quanah and the Pease River.