Sweetwater

Sweetwater, the county seat of Nolan County, is on Interstate Highway 20, U.S. Highway 80/84, State Highway 70, Farm Road 419, and the Santa Fe Railroad, forty-two miles west of Abilene in the north central part of the county. The post office at the site was first known as Blue Goose, supposedly because some local cowboys killed a great blue heron under the impression that it was a variety of goose. The town was named for Sweetwater Creek and known as Sweet Water by postal authorities until 1918. The site held only a couple of tent stores and no permanent buildings when it was designated county seat at the organization of the county in 1881. The first stirrings of the community might be set in 1877, when Billie Knight ran a store for buffalo hunters in the area. The post office, established in 1879 on the creek three miles southeast, was moved to the new town the same year. The Texas and Pacific Railway started service in 1881, and by 1883 there were five saloons and other businesses. Read more at TSHA