Stephenville: The Milk Capital of Texas

Stephenville became the county seat of Erath County in eighteen fifty-six when settler John M. Stephen offered to donate land for a courthouse on the condition that the town carry his name. The legislators agreed.

Stephenville sits in the Western Cross Timbers, that belt of post oak and red sandy soil that stretches across north-central Texas, which proved ideal for dairy farming. Over the twentieth century Erath County grew into one of the top dairy counties in Texas, a distinction the city marks with a fiberglass cow named Moola on the courthouse square. Today Stephenville is also a college town, home to Tarleton State University, and holds both its agricultural identity and its role as an educational and commercial hub for the Cross Timbers region.