Colorado City Grew Around Cattle Drives and a Railroad

Mitchell County was created by the Texas legislature in 1876 and organized in 1881. Colorado City became the county seat that same year. The first train on the Texas and Pacific Railway reached town on April 16, 1881. For a time, Colorado City was a leading cattle shipping hub, handling large cattle drives heading east.

Severe droughts in the late 1880s and 1890s hurt the cattle industry. Cotton farming took over in the early 1900s. Then petroleum was discovered in 1920, and an oil boom funded the Mitchell County Courthouse, built in 1924. The county is named after Asa and Eli Mitchell, two brothers who fought in the Texas Revolution.