A 1937 milk plant helped Hopkins trade cotton rows for dairy routes

Cotton dominated Hopkins County agriculture into the early 1900s. Then Carnation opened a milk-processing plant in 1937. Better road and rail links let farmers move a perishable product, and dairy became a major local business.

The change grew large enough to reach the state record. A Texas House resolution notes that Hopkins had nearly 500 dairies in 1990 and supplied about 17 percent of the state's milk that year. Those are historical figures, not a picture of today's farm count.

The county kept the memory in public view. A Texas Historical Commission travel guide points to Sulphur Springs' barn-shaped dairy museum and its collection from the years before farm electrification. The industry changed, but it left the county with a story people could walk into.