Crosby County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 5,133. The county seat is Crosbyton. The county was founded in 1876 and later organized in 1886. Both the county and its seat are named for Stephen Crosby, a land commissioner in Texas.
Crosby County, along with Lubbock and Lynn Counties, is part of the Lubbock metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The Lubbock MSA and Levelland micropolitan statistical area <!-- (μSA), --> encompassing only Hockley County, form the larger Lubbock–Levelland combined statistical area.
Until the passage of a referendum to permit liquor sales, held on May 11, 2013, Crosby County had been one of 19 remaining prohibition or entirely dry counties within Texas. That same day, voters in Denver City and Yoakum County also approved separate referendums to permit liquor sales. The number of prohibition counties in Texas at that time hence dropped to 17. Part of the large Matador Ranch of West Texas extends into the county.
History
Around 11,000 BC, Paleo-Indians were the first inhabitants. Archeological artifacts indicate hunter-gatherers hunted the mammoth, mastodon, saber-toothed cat, and giant ground sloth. Later Native American inhabitants included the Comanche.
In 1871, Ranald S. Mackenzie fought Quanah Parker and other Comanches at the Battle of Blanco Canyon. The campaign established the Mackenzie Trail used by the first settlers in Crosby County in the late 1870s.
The Texas Legislature formed Crosby County from Young and Bexar districts in 1876.
Confederate veteran Paris Cox first visited the Caprock Escarpment of the Llano Estacado with a group of buffalo hunters in 1879. Estacado was named the county seat in 1886. By 1900, the beef industry was thriving, supporting 30,618 head.
In 1908, the Bar-N-Bar Ranch began selling acreage to farmers. Some in the county were planted in cotton, and 15,000 apple and peach trees were growing in the county in 1920.
Major highways
- 20px U.S. Highway 62
- 20px 20px U.S. Highway 82/State Highway 114
- 20px State Highway 207
Adjacent counties
- Floyd County (north)
- Motley County (northeast)
- Dickens County (east)
- Kent County (southeast)
- Garza County (south)
- Lynn County (southwest)
- Lubbock County (west)
- Hale County (northwest)
Geographic features
- Blanco Canyon
- White River, Silver Falls
- Mount Blanco
- Caprock Escarpment