Building in Somervell County
Somervell County is in north central Texas and is crossed by U.S. Highway 67 and State Highway 144. At 188 square miles, it is the second-smallest county in Texas. Glen Rose, the principal town and county seat, is fifty-five miles southwest of Fort Worth.
The east lies in the Grand Prairie and the west in the Cross Timbers. Terrain is generally rough with limestone outcroppings, and the main soils are very shallow clays over limestone, with deep loamy and alluvial soils along river bottoms. Elevation ranges from 600 to 1,200 feet. Rainfall averages 32.65 inches a year, and the growing season is 236 days long.
Dinosaurs left well-preserved tracks along the Paluxy River, now protected in Dinosaur Valley State Park. Charles E. Barnard, the first permanent Anglo settler, opened a trading post in the late 1840s, and Barnard’s Mill, built in 1860, was the first building at Glen Rose. The county was formed from Hood County in 1875 and named for Alexander Somervell. Livestock was the main farm product.
NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 9 hail reports in Somervell County from 2016 to 2025, 8 of them an inch across or larger, with stones up to 2 inches. The same records show 4 damaging thunderstorm wind reports, with gusts up to about 81 mph. That is why a patio cover’s roof panels, fasteners and posts here are chosen for hail and wind, not only for shade.
