Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Sweetwater, TX

Sweetwater is the county seat of Nolan County in West Texas, sitting on Interstate 20 about 40 miles west of Abilene.

The name Sweetwater is the English translation of the Kiowa word "Mobeetie."

Sweetwater got its first post office in 1879; the office was first called Blue Goose and then "Sweet Water," spelled as two words until the name was officially shortened in 1918.

The Texas and Pacific Railway arrived on March 12, 1881, and Sweetwater became the Nolan County seat when the county was organized that same year, beginning its long life as a railroad town.

The 2020 census counted 10,622 people in Sweetwater, and Census QuickFacts puts the city at about 4,245 households averaging 2.39 people each.

Sweetwater hosts the World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, held every March since 1958 at the Nolan County Coliseum and drawing roughly 30,000 visitors a year to watch western diamondbacks being weighed, measured, and milked.

During World War II, Avenger Field in Sweetwater was the only airfield in the nation used exclusively to train the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP); the field is now home to a WASP museum and a Texas State Technical College campus.

Sweetwater is considered the center of the leading wind power generation region of the Western Hemisphere, and Nolan County's wind farms once generated more wind energy than the entire state of California.

The Nolan County Courthouse displays a collection of 81 antique Winchester rifles donated by J. Paul Turner, billed as the largest collection of antique Winchester guns in the world.

An estimated EF3 tornado tore through the south side of Sweetwater in the early morning of April 19, 1986.