Moving - Bell, Texas

If you think you will be moving into or out of Bell, TX, in the future, give Continental Relocation a call or click here for a free estimate.   Continental Relocation is a full service company which can take over your move and make the experience a pleasant one.  Continental Relocation can pack, crate, move and store your belongings for you at a reasonable price.

Please enjoy this brief history of Bell, TX.  We hope to hear from you.

A Brief History of Bell County, Texas

Bell County, in east central Texas, is located along the Balcones Escarpment approximately forty-five miles north of the Capitol^qv 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.

In the mid-nineteenth century, early settlers found a rich wildlife population of, deer, wild turkeys, wolves, bear, buffalo, antelope, wild horses, ducks, geese, wild hogs, and an occasional alligator. While the buffalo, bear, and hogs were hunted to extinction in the county in the nineteenth century and the last alligator was killed in 1908, Bell County still provides habitat for many wild species, including deer, antelope, and numerous birds; Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Lake^qqv provide a refuge for Bell County wildlife. Temperatures range from an average high of 96° in July to an average low of 36° in January. Rainfall averages thirty-four inches a year; the average relative humidity is 82 percent at 6 a.m. and 52 percent at 6 p.m., and the growing season averages 258 days annually.

The area currently comprising Bell County has been the site of human habitation since at least 6000 b.c. Evidence of Archaic Period (ca. 7000 b.c.-a.d. 500) and possibly Paleo-Indian Period (pre-7000 b.c.) inhabitants has been recovered from archeological sites at the Stillhouse Hollow Site, Lake Belton, and Youngsport. Numerous campsites, kitchen middens and burial mounds from the late prehistoric era have been found along the watercourses of the county, and rockshelters for burials have been discovered in the western part of the county. The earliest known historical occupants of the county, the Tonkawas, were a flint-working, hunting people who followed the buffalo^qv on foot. During the eighteenth century they made the transition to a horse culture and began to use firearms. Lipan Apaches, Wacos, Anadarkos, Kiowas, and Comanches also frequented the land that become Bell County. The Lipans camped by the rivers and streams, and early white settlers had friendly relations with them. Early settlers also recorded that the Indians fired the prairie each spring to burn off the matted winter grass and facilitate new growth. But by the late 1840s the Lipans, Tonkawas and other groups who had customarily camped and hunted in the Bell County area had been decimated by European diseases and driven away by white settlement. Comanche raiding parties continued to strike into the county until 1870.