Rockwall County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Texas has got 254 counties, and if you've spent any time drivin' this state, you know some of them stretch out so wide you could lose a small nation inside the borders. But then there's Rockwall County.

One hundred and forty-seven square miles. The smallest of the whole lot. Two hundred and fifty-four counties, and this one sits at the bottom of that list; which, depending on how you look at it, either makes it the underdog or the most concentrated piece of Texas real estate in the whole republic.

I'm inclined to say both. People were already puttin' down roots here in the 1840s, when this stretch of land was still folded into Kaufman County. It stayed that way for a good while, until 1873, when Rockwall County was carved out and given a life of its own.

But here's the part of this story that stops you cold. Back in the early 1850s, somebody discovered something underground: a formation of rock, buried beneath the surface, running along like a wall the earth itself had decided to build. They named the county for it.

Named the city for it too. An underground rock formation so curious, so out of place, that it earned itself a place on the map twice over. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad came cutting through after that, threading Rockwall County into the wider world, and the fertile farmland here did what fertile farmland does; it kept people fed and kept the county movin'.

Then, in more recent years, the story took another turn. The aluminum industry put down roots here, and the East Fork of the Trinity River was transformed into Lake Ray Hubbard, and just like that, the smallest county in Texas had a diversified economy to go along with that storied underground wall. Small in size.

Big in story. That's Rockwall County for you.

What the marker says

First settled in the 1840s, this region was a part of Kaufman County until 1873, when Rockwall County was created. With an area of 147 square miles, this is the smallest of Texas' 254 counties. The county and city of Rockwall were named for an underground formation of rock discovered in the early 1850s. Crossed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, Rockwall County is an area of fertile farmland. The location here of the aluminum industry and the creation of Lake Ray Hubbard from the East Fork of the Trinity River diversified the local economy in recent years. (1976)