Bell County - Texas (012) Traditional Cache
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Bell County - Texas (012)
A cache by [DELETED_USER]
Hidden
:
6/5/2012
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Bell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Bell County was founded in 1850. It is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2000, the county's population was 237,974; in 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that its population had reached 310,235. Its county seat is Belton. The center of population of Texas is located in Bell County, in the town of Holland. Bell is named for Peter Hansborough Bell, the third governor of Texas.
Bell County, in east central Texas, is located along the Balcones Escarpment approximately forty-five miles north of the Capitol in Austin and is bordered by Coryell, McLennan, and Falls counties on the north, on the east by Falls and Milam counties, on the south by Milam and Williamson counties, and on the west by Lampasas and Burnet counties. Belton, the third largest town in the county, serves as the county seat and is sixty-five miles north of Austin. The county's center lies at approximately 31°02' north latitude and 97°30' east longitude. Interstate Highway 35 and State highways 195, 95, and 317 are the major north-south roads in the county; U.S. Highway 190 and State Highway 36 cross the county east and west. Bell County is also served by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific railroads.
Bell County comprises some 1,055 square miles and is divided into regions by the Balcones Escarpment, which runs through the approximate center of the county from southeast to northwest. The eastern part of the county, on the Blackland Prairie, consists of comparatively level prairieland, mainly undulating to gently rolling. The western half of the county belongs to the Grand Prairie region of Texas, and includes undulating to rolling uplands, deeply cut with stream valleys that, in places, have stony slopes and steep bluffs. Bell County ranges in elevation from about 450 feet above sea level in the southeast to about 1,200 feet above sea level on the western boundary. The county is drained chiefly by the Little River and its tributaries, especially the Leon, Lampasas, and Salado rivers, which come together at historic Three Forks to form the Little River. Soils in the eastern part of the county are mostly dark, loamy to clayey "blackland" soils; the rich Houston black clay is the most common type and the most suitable for farming. The soils west of the Balcones fault are light to dark and loamy and clayey, with limy subsoils; shallow, stony soils in places have encouraged ranching and hardwood and pine production. Vegetation west of the fault is characterized by tall grasses and oak, juniper, pine, and mesquite trees, while the eastern part of the county, which has been extensively utilized for farming, is still wooded along its streams with a variety of hardwood trees. Between 41 and 50 percent of the land in Bell County is considered prime farmland. Mineral resources include limestone, oil, gas, sand and gravel, and dolomite. |
I found my first cache in Bell county on 03/15/2009.
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