Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Weatherford, TX

Weatherford is the county seat of Parker County, chosen in an election among three eligible sites and named for Thomas Jefferson Weatherford, the state senator who coauthored the bill creating the county — a man who, according to his cousin, never set foot in the town named for him.

Weatherford was incorporated in 1858, and for its first decade it was the principal frontier settlement in North Texas, sitting midway on the stagecoach run between Fort Worth and Fort Belknap.

Weatherford had 30,854 residents at the 2020 census and about 13,848 households in recent Census Bureau figures, only about 61.5% of them owner-occupied, and the Census Bureau estimated its population had already surged past 40,000 by 2025.

Weatherford is known as the Peach Capital of Texas — the state legislature has designated Parker County as the Peach Capital — and the city hosts the annual Parker County Peach Festival.

Weatherford is also billed as the Cutting Horse Capital of the World, and the National Cutting Horse Association has its roots in Parker County.

Watermelons put Weatherford on the map early: the fruit became the area's main agricultural product after 1900, and Parker County watermelons won gold medals at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Weatherford College, which began in 1869, is described as the oldest junior college west of the Mississippi River and still anchors higher education in the city.

Weatherford's Second Empire-style Parker County Courthouse was built in 1885 at the famously precise cost of $55,555.55.

Famed cattle drover Oliver Loving is buried in Weatherford's Greenwood Cemetery, and the story of the Loving–Goodnight cattle drives inspired Larry McMurtry's novel Lonesome Dove.

Weatherford's railroad arrived in June 1880, turning the town into the retail and shipping hub for Parker County farmers and ranchers, and its 1908 Santa Fe Depot now houses the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce.