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About Ochiltree
County
Ochiltree County is in the far northern Panhandle, bordered on the
north by Oklahoma, on the east by Lipscomb County, on the south by
Roberts County, and on the west by Hansford County. The county is in
the heart of the High Plains, and occupies 907 square miles of level
prairies
Perryton, the county seat, is in the north central part of the county,
120 miles northeast of Amarillo. The area was named for William Beck
Ochiltree, a Republic of Texas judge, secretary of treasury, and an
officer in the army of the Confederacy.
Prehistoric cultures occupied this region, then the Plains Apaches
appeared. The historic-era Apaches arrived, then were pushed out of the
region in the early eighteenth century by the Comanche Indians, who
dominated the Texas Panhandle until the 1870s. The Red River War of
1874-75 led to the removal of the nomadic Indians to Indian Territory,
which in turn led to the arrival of the ranching era. In 1876 the Texas
legislature established Ochiltree County from lands formerly assigned
to the Bexar District.
Proximity to the railroad, built in 1887 into nearby Lipscomb County,
brought an influx of settlers into the county, especially after 1900,
and the ranching economy evolved into a stock-farming system.
Between 1900 and 1910, however, stock farming began to give way to
wheat farming. By 1920 there were 336 farms and ranches; almost 42,000
acres were planted in wheat, and 14,500 acres devoted to sorghum.
Although oil and gas exploration had occurred in the county as early as
1912 and continued periodically through the 1920s and 1930s, the first
successful major producer blew in 1955. More than 341,500 barrels
of crude oil were produced in the county that year, and production
rapidly expanded.
Ochiltree County possesses a diversified economy centered around
agriculture, oil, and gas.
In the 1980s, the agricultural sector earned $70 million in 1983,
primarily through the production of cattle, hogs, wheat, sorghums,
corn, and alfalfa. Irrigation, which began in the late 1940s and
expanded in the 1960s and 1970s, was used on 40 percent of the county's
croplands in the early 1980s.
Oil production, valued at $61 million in 1983, helped to balance the
agricultural economy. Feedlot operations, agribusinesses, and oilfield
services also added to the local economy.
Communities in the county include Perryton (1990 population, 7,606),
the seat of government; Waka (145); Huntoon (21); Farnsworth (149); and
Twichell (22).
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Ochiltree
County
Resources 
