Parmer County
Plenty of History in Parmer County
Events to attend: Cheeseburger Festival, Friona Maize Days, Farwell Border Town Days
Sites to see: County Courthouse, Hopping/Aldridge House (Farwell), Friona Women's Club House, Parmer County Museum, First United Methodist Church (Bovina), Parmerton Market Co. Seat, Coronado Expedition Marker, Bovina Market, XIT Shipping Site
History of Parmer County Parmer County was formed in 1907 from the Bexar Land District and separated from Deaf Smith County. Settlers, primarily from the Midwest arrived by train and began breaking out the farmland around the county and the agriculture base for the county was born. Early settlers combined ranching and farming and utilized early free grazing lands for their herds. Although the free grazing lands fell by the wayside, the combination of agriculture and ranching flourished as it does today.
During the mid-century, Parmer County produced about one-sixth of the world’s sorghum production, but today the crop has diminished to a fraction of its former place in the county’s agriculture output. Today, corn, wheat and cotton are the staple crops for Parmer County. Several other products have managed a place in the county’s arsenal of produce such as apples, pumpkins and other food crops.
Although the people head count of Parmer County is fairly sparse, if you count the critter-head we are larger than Dallas. Each cow consumes about forty gallons of water a day so the need for plentiful water is critical here. Take into account also that the average yearly rainfall is just under twenty inches, and you quickly recognize that underground water, specifically the Ogallala Aquifer, is of paramount importance to our residents.
In the past several years a number of dairies have located in the county and are doing very well, so the number of cow critters has grown greatly.
Although small in size the sprawling agriculture plains counties, such as Parmer County, offer a veritable smorgasbord of economic opportunities to the farm and ranch base of our nation’s wealth.
View Website (
http://www.co.parmer.tx.us/ips/cms)