Stonewall County Texas map
33.18° N · 100.25° W · County seat: Aspermont · 920 sq mi
One incorporated town, 1,245 people and two forks of the Brazos. The Double Mountain Fork and the Salt Fork both cross Stonewall County, and the twin flat-topped peaks the first of them is named for stand in the southwest corner, visible for miles across the rolling plains.
Aspermont sits on a rise at the crossing of US-83 and US-380, near the middle of the county and between the two Brazos forks.
Where Stonewall County is
This is Rolling Plains country between Abilene and the caprock. Abilene lies 59 miles southeast, Lubbock 96 miles northwest and Wichita Falls 113 miles northeast. Nothing closer than Abilene has more than a few thousand people.
Seven counties touch it. Going clockwise from the top: King north, Knox northeast, Haskell east, Jones southeast, Fisher south, Kent west and Dickens northwest.
The legislature created the county in 1876 from the Bexar District and named it for the Confederate general Thomas J. Jackson; organization waited until 1888, when enough settlers had arrived to hold an election. Aspermont, laid out that decade on high ground between the river forks, won the county seat and has held it since.
The two forks of the Brazos
The Salt Fork of the Brazos crosses the northeast of the county and the Double Mountain Fork the southwest, and the two run roughly parallel across Stonewall County before joining downstream in Haskell and Throckmorton counties to make the main stem of the Brazos. Both drain gypsum and salt beds, which is why the water in them is brackish enough that the reservoirs on the Brazos system have long had a salinity problem.
The Double Mountains themselves — two low, flat-capped buttes standing above the plain — are the landmark that gave the fork its name and served as a bearing point for army scouts and trail drivers coming up from the south. They are on private ranch land, but visible from the roads in the southwest of the county.
Aspermont and the county's places
| Place | Type | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Aspermont (county seat) | Town | 779 |
Aspermont is the only incorporated place in Stonewall County, and roughly three of every five residents live in it. The remaining population is spread over ranches and small unincorporated communities such as Old Glory, Peacock and Swenson. At 1,245 people across 920 square miles, the county averages between one and two people per square mile.
Roads
- US-83 – the main north–south route, up from Hamlin and Abilene, through Aspermont, and north toward Guthrie and the Panhandle.
- US-380 – east–west through Aspermont, east to Haskell and west toward Jayton in Kent County.
- SH-283 – a shorter state route running out of Aspermont toward the northeast corner of the county.
There is no interstate and no four-lane highway anywhere in the county. The nearest interstate access is I-20 at Sweetwater or Anson, well to the south.
Land and work
Ranching, dryland cotton and wheat carry the county, along with oil and gas production that has run at a modest level for decades. The population peaked before the Second World War and has fallen with every mechanization of farm work since; the 2024 census estimate of 1,235 is essentially flat against the 2020 count, which for a county of this kind counts as stability.