Outdoor Living in Nolan County, Texas

Building in Nolan County

Nolan County is in west central Texas, bounded by Taylor County on the east, Coke and Runnels on the south, Mitchell on the west, and Fisher on the north. Sweetwater, the county seat and largest town, is forty-two miles west of Abilene, 125 miles southeast of Lubbock, and 130 miles northeast of Odessa.

The county lies on the lower plains, where the western end of the Callahan Divide crosses the south. Rolling uplands in the north give way to plateaus and valleys in the south, at 2,000 to 2,700 feet. Loamy soils sit over deep clayey or loamy subsoils with lime accumulations. Rainfall averages 22.19 inches, and the growing season averages 221 days.

Named for Philip Nolan, the county was carved from the Young-Bexar territory by the legislature in 1876. Buffalo hunters came first, and Knight’s store opened in a dugout on Sweetwater Creek in 1877. The county was organized after an election on January 20, 1881, and Sweetwater, on the new Texas and Pacific Railway, became the seat. Ranching led early on, but by 1910 cotton was by far the most important crop.

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 52 hail reports in Nolan County from 2016 to 2025, 47 of them an inch across or larger, with stones up to 2.75 inches. The same records show 47 damaging thunderstorm wind reports, with gusts up to about 85 mph, and 1 tornado. That is why a patio cover’s roof panels, fasteners and posts here are chosen for hail and wind, not only for shade.