Walker County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 67,861. Its county seat is Huntsville. Initially, Walker County was named for Robert J. Walker, a legislator from Mississippi who introduced into the United States Congress the resolution to annex Texas. However, Walker later supported the Union during the Civil War; thus, in order to keep the county's name from being changed, it was renamed for Samuel H. Walker, a Texas Ranger and soldier in the American Army.Walker County is part of the Huntsville Micropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Houston–Baytown–Huntsville Combined Statistical Area. James Mitchell (1795–1870) and his wife, the former Calpernia Franklin (1805–1865), came to the future Walker County under a Mexican land grant in 1833. Mitchell, who became one of the first county commissioneers, established the Mitchell House and Inn on the Old San Antonio Road, also known as El Camino Real. During the 1840s, the house was a stop for weary stagecoach travelers. The premier historian of Texas, Eugene C. Barker, for whom the Barker History Center on the University of Texas campus in Austin is named, was born in Walker County in 1874. Another historian born in Walker County was Marilyn McAdams Sibley, professor at Houston Baptist University and the mother of former State Senator David McAdams Sibley, Sr.
Walker County is in southeast Texas. The center of the county is at 30°47' north latitude and 95°33' west longitude. Huntsville, the county seat, is near the center of the county sixty miles north of Houston. The area was originally named for Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, who introduced into the United States Congress the resolution for the annexation of Texas; because he was a Unionist during the Civil War, however, in 1863 the state legislature changed the honoree to Samuel H. Walker. Walker County encompasses 801 square miles of rolling hills and open prairies in the Piney Woods vegetation area; around 70 percent of the county is blanketed by forests of loblolly, short-leaf and long-leaf pine, and hardwoods. The area rests at the extreme western end of the Coastal Plain region. Elevations in the county range from 140 to 404 feet above sea level. The land is well watered, receiving forty-six inches of rain each year, and is drained by two major rivers, the Trinity River in the north and the San Jacinto River in the south. Numerous creeks also cross the county. Bedias Creek forms part of the northwestern boundary and empties into the Trinity River, as do Harmon, Carolina, and Nelson creeks. Mill, East and West Sandy, and Robinson creeks drain into the San Jacinto River in the south. Forest soils are typically sands and clays, but alluvial loams are found in creek beds and at lower elevations. Temperatures range from an average low of 38° F in January to an average high of 95° F in July; the growing season lasts 265 days. Clay deposits-ceramic and brick clays and Fuller's earth-have been mined commercially, as have other minerals, including sand, gravel, lignite, volcanic ash, and petroleum. Walker County is crossed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Interstate Highway 45. Transportation in the area is also facilitated by a series of farm-to-market roads radiating outward from Huntsville.
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I found my first cache in Walker county on 11-15-2009.
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