Jones County Texas map
32.74° N · 99.87° W · County seat: Anson · 938 sq mi
Jones County holds the north edge of Abilene: 5,503 of the city's residents live inside this county, more than twice the population of Anson, the county seat 22 miles up US-277. Both the county and its seat are named for Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas.
Jones County immediately north of Abilene. US-277 runs northeast through Anson to Stamford; US-83 and US-180 cross in the south of the county.
Where Jones County is
The southern county line runs through the built-up north side of Abilene, which makes Jones County part of the Abilene metropolitan area and gives it the largest population of any county in this group of Rolling Plains counties. Seven counties border it: Haskell north, Shackelford east, Callahan at the southeast corner, Taylor south, Nolan at the southwest corner, Fisher west and Stonewall at the northwest corner.
San Angelo is 94 miles southwest and Wichita Falls 114 miles northeast. The Clear Fork of the Brazos crosses the eastern side of the county; the western side drains toward the Double Mountain Fork.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population in county |
|---|---|---|
| Abilene (part) | City | 5,503 |
| Stamford (part) | City | 2,863 |
| Anson (county seat) | City | 2,529 |
| Hamlin (part) | City | 1,829 |
| Hawley | City | 553 |
| Lueders (part) | City | 254 |
Four of the six straddle county lines: Abilene continues into Taylor County, Stamford into Haskell, Hamlin into Fisher and Lueders into Shackelford. The figures above count only the part inside Jones County.
Roads
- US-277 is the spine, running northeast from Abilene through Anson and Stamford toward Haskell.
- US-83 comes up from Abilene and splits off northwest through Hamlin.
- US-180 crosses east–west through Anson, linking Albany in the east with Rotan and Snyder in the west.
- State Highway 6 runs north from Stamford; State Highway 92 and a web of farm roads serve the smaller communities of Avoca, Neinda and Truby.
US-83 and US-277 run together for part of the way out of Abilene before dividing north of the city, and I-20 through Abilene is the nearest interstate, five to ten miles south of the county line.
Anson, Stamford and the state units
Anson holds the Texas Cowboys' Christmas Ball each December, a dance revived in the 1930s from an 1885 gathering at the town's Star Hotel and the poem Larry Chittenden wrote about it. It is one of the oldest continuing events of its kind in Texas and fills the Pioneer Hall for three nights.
Stamford, up US-277 on the Haskell line, has held the Texas Cowboy Reunion every July since 1930 — a rodeo restricted to working ranch hands, with an arena and grounds built for it on the edge of town.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice runs two units in the south of the county on FM 3522, north of Abilene: the French M. Robertson Unit, a large maximum-security prison, and the Middleton Transfer Facility next to it. Together they are among the biggest employers in Jones County, and their inmate counts are included in the county's census population.