Coleman County Texas map
31.91° N · 99.35° W · County seat: Coleman · 1,282 sq mi
Coleman County holds 19 square miles of open water, more than most counties its size in this dry stretch of Texas. Two reservoirs — Lake Coleman on Jim Ned Creek and Hords Creek Lake west of town — are the reason 7,684 people can live on 1,263 square miles of dry rangeland.
The city of Coleman is near the centre. Lake Coleman is the reservoir to the north; Hords Creek Lake lies a short way west of the city.
Where Coleman County is
The county sits between the Abilene country and the Concho Valley, on the western edge of the rolling prairie before the plateau begins. Six counties border it: Callahan north, Brown east, McCulloch south, Concho southwest, Runnels west and Taylor northwest.
Abilene is 43 miles northwest in a straight line and San Angelo 71 miles southwest — the county lies almost exactly between the two, and US-67/84 is the road that links them through here. Killeen is 110 miles southeast. There is no interstate; the nearest is I-20, about 40 miles north across Callahan County.
Coleman County was created in 1858 from Brown and Travis counties and organized in 1864, during the Civil War. It is named for Robert M. Coleman, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who fought at San Jacinto.
Towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population |
|---|---|---|
| Coleman | City (county seat) | 3,918 |
| Santa Anna | Town | 1,013 |
| Novice | City | 120 |
Just over 65 percent of the county's residents live in these three places, and more than half in Coleman itself. Santa Anna is east of Coleman on US-67/84 and stands under Santa Anna Mountain, the twin-peaked landmark that is the most visible hill for miles and was used as a signal point in the nineteenth century. Novice is a small farming town in the west toward Runnels County. Everything else — Talpa, Valera, Burkett, Gouldbusk — is unincorporated.
Roads
- US-67 and US-84 – concurrent through Coleman and Santa Anna on the northeast–southwest axis, toward Brownwood one way and Ballinger and San Angelo the other.
- US-283 – north–south through the county, up to Baird and I-20, down to Brady and the Hill Country.
- State Highway 153 – west from Coleman toward Talpa and Ballinger in Runnels County.
- State Highway 206 – north out of Coleman across the Callahan Divide toward Cross Plains and Clyde.
Two reservoirs in dry country
Hords Creek Lake, a short drive west of Coleman, is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project built for flood control and water supply on Hords Creek, a tributary of the Colorado. It is the older of the two and the only federally operated lake in the county; the Corps operates campgrounds and boat ramps on the shore, and the lake is small enough to be crossed in a skiff.
Lake Coleman, north of the city on Jim Ned Creek, is the municipal water supply, owned by the city of Coleman. It is the larger of the pair and the one most used for fishing. Between them the two lakes account for the county's 19 square miles of water, a figure well above what neighbouring counties of similar size record.
Both lakes sit in the Colorado River basin; Jim Ned Creek and Hords Creek are tributaries of it.
Ranching and the frontier line
Coleman County was on the edge of settlement for a long time. Its 1,263 square miles of land support cattle, sheep, goats and hay, and its towns were built to serve those ranches rather than any single industry, which is why the population peaked decades ago and has drifted down since. The 2020 count of 7,684 works out to about six people per square mile. Hunting leases — deer, turkey and quail — are now a substantial part of the rural economy, and the county's motels and cafés fill up in November rather than in summer.