Where is Montgomery County?
Montgomery County is on Interstate 45, about 40 miles north of downtown Houston. Its county seat is Conroe. The 2020 Census counted 620,443 residents. The Census Bureau lists its land area as 1,042.18 square miles.
How is Montgomery County governed?
Montgomery County is governed by a Commissioners Court. Like every Texas county, it is divided into four precincts. The court is made up of a county judge and four commissioners.
How did Montgomery County develop?
Anglo-American colonists founded the Lake Creek Settlement in 1831. W. W. Shepperd and John Wyatt Moody founded the town of Montgomery in July 1837. The Congress of the Republic of Texas created the county on December 14, 1837. President Sam Houston signed the act. The county took its name from the town of Montgomery, its first county seat.
The seat moved to Willis in 1874 and back to Montgomery in 1880. Conroe became the county seat in 1889. The International-Great Northern Railroad crossed the county in 1871. George William Strake drilled a well that struck oil on December 13, 1931. The Handbook of Texas lists 49,479 residents in 1970 and 128,487 in 1980.
Which cities and communities are in Montgomery County?
The Handbook of Texas lists The Woodlands as the county’s largest community, with 114,436 residents in 2020. Conroe had 89,956. Other communities include Willis, Pinehurst, Shenandoah, Panorama Village, Montgomery, Patton Village, Woodbranch and Cut and Shoot.
George P. Mitchell founded The Woodlands in 1974. The Woodlands Township is a special-purpose local government created in 2010. An elected board of directors governs it.
What are Montgomery County’s land and water features?
The county drains to the San Jacinto River basin through Peach, Caney, Spring and Bushy creeks. The Sam Houston National Forest covers much of the northeast and northwest parts of the county.
Lake Conroe lies about 7 miles northwest of Conroe. The San Jacinto River Authority built it in a joint venture with the City of Houston. The dam was completed in January 1973, and the lake was filled by October 31, 1973. In 2009, the river authority bought the right to use Houston’s two-thirds share of the lake’s water. Lake Conroe has supplied drinking water to Montgomery County since September 2015.