Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Palo Pinto, TX

Palo Pinto is an unincorporated community and census-designated place that serves as the county seat of Palo Pinto County, even though it has never been incorporated.

The town sits on U.S. Highway 180 and Farm Road 4, twelve miles southwest of Mineral Wells, in the scenic Palo Pinto Mountains country of North Texas.

Settlers arrived in the fertile Brazos River valley around Palo Pinto in 1855, drawn by its rich soil.

When the Texas legislature created Palo Pinto County on August 27, 1856, it specified that the county seat — to be named Golconda — must sit within five miles of the county's center; the county was organized on May 13, 1857, and the first county court met that August.

Golconda received a post office in March 1858, and the community was renamed Palo Pinto later that same year, taking the Spanish name of Palo Pinto Creek — 'palo pinto' means 'painted stick.'

Palo Pinto got the county's first newspaper in 1876, and although the Texas and Pacific Railway bypassed it for Mineral Wells in 1880, the town held on to the county seat and remained the county's only town that year.

The Palo Pinto County Courthouse that still anchors the town on U.S. Highway 180 was built in 1940.

Palo Pinto's population peaked at 550 in 1947, and longtime residents have included Palo Pinto County judges, sheriffs, and state legislators despite the town's small size.

Palo Pinto was counted as a census-designated place for the first time in the 2010 Census with 333 residents, and the 2020 Census counted 276 — making it one of the smallest county seats in Texas.