Denton County, Texas

History

Before the arrival of settlers, various Native American peoples, including the Kichai and the Lenape, infrequently populated the area. The area was settled by Peters Colony landowners in the early 1840s. Until the annexation of Texas, the area was considered part of Fannin County. On April 11, 1846, the First Texas Legislature established Denton County. The county was named for John B. Denton, who was killed while raiding a Native American village in Tarrant County in 1841. Originally, the county seat was set at Pinckneyville. This was later changed to Alton, where the Old Alton Bridge currently stands, and then moved finally to Denton.

By 1860, the population of the county had increased to 5,031. On March 4, 1861, residents of the county narrowly voted for secession from the Union, with 331 votes cast for and 264 against. The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad reached Lewisville, located in the southern portion of the county, by the early 1880s. The Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square was built in 1896, and currently houses various government offices, as well as a museum.

Geography

|Denton, Texas |33|56|2.06 |36|60|2.92 |44|68|3.23 |52|76|3.25 |63|83|5.11 |70|91|3.59 |74|95|2.39 |73|96|2.14 |66|88|3.09 |55|78|4.96 |44|66|2.90 |35|57|2.56

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 953 sqmi, of which 878 sqmi are land and 75 sqmi (7.8%) are covered by water. Denton County is located in the northern part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, about 35 miles south of the border between Texas and Oklahoma. It is drained by two forks of the Trinity River. The largest body of water in Denton County is Lewisville Lake, which was formed in 1954 when the Garza–Little Elm Reservoir was merged with Lake Dallas. The county is on the western edge of the eastern Cross Timbers and also encompasses parts of the Grand Prairie portion of the Texas blackland prairies. Portions of Denton County sit atop the Barnett Shale, a geological formation believed to contain large quantities of natural shale gas. Between 1995 and 2007, the number of natural gas wells in the county increased from 156 to 1,820, which has led to some controversy over the pollution associated with hydraulic fracturing.

Lakes

• Lewisville Lake
• Lake Ray Roberts

Adjacent counties

• Cooke County (north)
• Grayson County (northeast)
• Collin County (east)
• Dallas County (southeast)
• Tarrant County (south)
• Wise County (west)

Communities

Cities

Multiple counties

• Carrollton (partly in Dallas County and a small part in Collin County)
• Celina (mostly in Collin County)
• Coppell (mostly in Dallas County)
• Dallas (mostly in Dallas County with small parts in Collin, Kaufman, Rockwall and Denton counties)
• Fort Worth (mostly in Tarrant County with small parts in Johnson, Parker, Wise, and Denton counties)
• Frisco (mostly in Collin County)
• Grapevine (mostly in Tarrant County and a small part in Dallas and Denton counties)
• Haslet (mostly in Tarrant County)
• Lewisville (small part in Dallas County)
• Plano (mostly in Collin County)
• Southlake (mostly in Tarrant County)

Denton County only

• Aubrey
• Corinth
• Denton (county seat)
• Highland Village
• Justin
• Krugerville
• Krum
• Lake Dallas
• Lakewood Village
• Little Elm
• Oak Point
• Pilot Point
• Roanoke
• Sanger
• The Colony

Towns

Multiple counties

• Flower Mound (small part in Tarrant County)
• Hebron (small part in Collin County)
• Prosper (mostly in Collin County)
• Trophy Club (small part in Tarrant County)
• Westlake (mostly in Tarrant County)

Denton County only

• Argyle
• Bartonville
• Corral City
• Copper Canyon
• Cross Roads
• DISH
• Double Oak
• Hackberry
• Hickory Creek
• Lincoln Park
• Northlake
• Ponder
• Providence Village
• Shady Shores

Census-designated places

• Lantana
• Paloma Creek
• Paloma Creek South
• Savannah

Unincorporated communities

• Alliance (partly in Tarrant County)
• Bolivar
• Navo

Ghost towns

• Alton
• Camey Spur
• Cooper Creek
• Drop
• Elizabethtown
• Green Valley
• Marshall Creek
• Mayhill
• Mingo
• Mustang
• Parvin
• Plainview
• Stony

Demographics

| align-fn = center 1850–2010 2010-2020

Racial and ethnic composition

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 906,422, a median age of 35.4 years, with 25.2% of residents under the age of 18 and 10.7% aged 65 years or older. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 93.0 males age 18 and over. This count represented continued population growth among suburban communities outside Dallas and Fort Worth, and Denton County ranked 29th on the U.S. Census Bureau's list of fastest-growing counties between 2000 and 2007, with a 41.4% increase in population.

The racial makeup of the county was 58.1% White, 10.8% Black or African American, 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 10.3% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 7.1% from some other race, and 12.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 20.2% of the population. The composition reflected state and national demographic trends of greater diversification.

92.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 7.2% lived in rural areas.

There were 328,884 households in the county, of which 37.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 55.1% were married-couple households, 15.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 23.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 348,275 housing units, of which 5.6% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 63.0% were owner-occupied and 37.0% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 8.4%.

2010 census

According to the 2010 United States census, there were 662,614 people, 224,840 households and 256,139 housing units in the county. The population density was 754.3 /mi2.

In 2010, the racial makeup of the county was 75% White, 8.4% African American, 0.7% Native American, 6.6% Asian, and 3.0% from two or more races. About 18.2% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.

A Williams Institute analysis of 2010 census data found about 5.2 same-sex couples per 1,000 households in the county.

Government and politics

Government

Denton County, like all counties in Texas, is governed by a commissioner's court, which consists of the county judge (the chairperson of the court), who is elected county-wide, and four commissioners who are elected by the voters in each of four districts.

Justices of the peace are county officials with jurisdiction over landlord/tenant issues, small civil claims, certain misdemeanors involving fines only (no jail time), and other matters.

County judge and commissioners

County officials

Justices of the peace

Law enforcement

The Denton Sheriff's Office employs more than 600 people, for the Denton County Sheriff's Office, most in the Detention Bureau. The office operates a county jail that houses up to 1,400 prisoners. The office is co-located with the jail at 127 North Woodrow Lane in the city of Denton.

As of 2021, the current sheriff is Tracy Murphree, who was first elected in 2016. That election was particularly contentious, with previous sheriff William B. Travis dogged by scandal, and new candidate Murphree making headlines for saying he would beat up a man who entered a women's public bathroom his daughter was using.

Politics

Denton County, like most suburban counties in Texas, is reliably Republican in statewide and national elections, although becoming less so since the 2018 election, when Beto O'Rourke earned 45.52% of the county's votes and two Democrats were elected. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the county was native Texan Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, the only time since 1952 that the county has been carried by a Democrat. Denton swung rapidly into the Republican column at the federal level in the 1950s and 1960s as Dallas and Fort Worth's suburbs spilled into the county.

In 2018, former State Representative Michelle Beckley became the first Democrat elected to the state legislature from Denton County since 1984. Her district at the time, the former 65th, was located entirely within Denton County, and included significant portions of Carrollton, Highland Village and Lewisville. Beckley stepped down from the seat in 2022 to run for Lieutenant Governor, and ultimately it was won back by the Republican nominee. Also in 2018, Christopher Lopez was elected to Justice of the Peace, Precinct 6, and became the first Democrat elected at the county level since 2004; Lopez held the JP6 position until a Republican challenger unseated him in 2022.

Despite a Republican advantage, Denton County has trended leftward, as Joe Biden managed to win 45.2% of the vote share (compared to Donald Trump's 53.3%) in the 2020 presidential election, the best result for a Democrat since 1976. Many other suburban Texas counties, including its immediate neighbors in Collin and Tarrant Counties, as well as those around Houston and Austin, showed similar swings between 2016 and 2020. However, in 2024 many of these swung back toward Trump, though Trump carried Denton County by a smaller margin than in 2016. This election also marked the first time since 1972 that Denton County voted to the left of Texas as a whole.

United States Representatives

Texas state representatives

Texas state senators

State Board of Education members

Education

K-12 schools

These school districts lie entirely within Denton County:

• Argyle Independent School District
• Aubrey Independent School District
• Denton Independent School District
• Lake Dallas Independent School District
• Lewisville Independent School District
• Little Elm Independent School District
• Ponder Independent School District
• Sanger Independent School District

These school districts lie partly within Denton County:

• Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District
• Celina Independent School District
• Era Independent School District
• Frisco Independent School District
• Krum Independent School District
• Northwest Independent School District
• Pilot Point Independent School District
• Prosper Independent School District
• Slidell Independent School District

These private educational institutions serve Denton County:

• Denton Calvary Academy
• Coram Deo Academy
• Lakeland Christian Academy
• Liberty Christian School
• Selwyn College Preparatory School

From around 1997 to 2015, the number of non-Hispanic white children in K-12 schools in the county increased by 20,000 as part of a trend of white flight and suburbanization by non-Hispanic white families.

Colleges and universities

According to the Texas Education Code, most of Denton County is assigned to North Central Texas College for community college. However, portions within Celina ISD, Prosper ISD, and the municipalities of Frisco and The Colony are instead assigned to Collin College (formerly Collin County Community College), and portions zoned to Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD are assigned to Dallas College (formerly Dallas County Community College District).

These four year higher-education institutions serve Denton County:

• University of North Texas (UNT)
• Texas Woman's University

Transportation

The Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) operates fixed-route bus services, on-demand GoZone service, and ACCESS paratransit service in the county that includes Denton, Lewisville, and Highland Village. SPAN Transit covers areas outside of Denton and Lewisville.

DCTA also operates the A-train, a commuter rail service that runs from Denton to Carrollton, at which station passengers can switch to the Green Line train owned and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). Passengers can transfer to other DART lines (denominated by different colors) at the downtown Dallas DART station.

The county is home to the Denton Municipal Airport and the Northwest Regional Airport in Roanoke. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located a few miles south of the county.

Major highways

Notable people

• Dick Armey, former U.S. House Majority Leader and a chief architect of the Contract with America.
• Joan Blondell, film and television actress, attended UNT (then North Texas State Teacher's College) in 1926–1927.
• Pat Boone, American pop singer, briefly attended UNT.
• Bowling for Soup, American rock band, based in Denton since 1996 and mentioned the county in their song Ohio (Come Back to Texas)
• Terry Bradshaw, former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback
• Mason Cox, professional Australian rules footballer, playing for Collingwood in the AFL
• Phyllis George, 1971 Miss America, sportscaster and former First Lady of Kentucky
• Joe Greene, defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, 1969–1981; 1969 defensive rookie of the year; 1972 and 1974 defensive player of the year; NFL 1970s all-decade team; Hall of Fame
• Jim Hightower, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner
• Norah Jones, UNT jazz major
• Henry Lee Lucas, serial killer, known as the "Confession Killer", committed a 1982 murder in Denton that ultimately led to his arrest
• Meat Loaf, American singer and actor, attended UNT
• Gordon McLendon, radio broadcaster and pioneer, B-movie producer, and conservative political financier
• Laina Morris - the Overly Attached Girlfriend
• Bill Moyers, White House press secretary in the Johnson Administration (1965–67), attended UNT
• Anne Rice, author, attended TWU and UNT, married in Denton
• Ann Sheridan, the "Oomph Girl", popular actress and singer, born and raised in Denton
• Sly Stone, the musician and frontman of Sly and the Family Stone
• Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil and 69th United States Secretary of State, resident of Bartonville
• Von Erich family, multigenerational professional wrestling family, known for a series of premature deaths sometimes referred to as the Von Erich curse
• Tex Watson, central member of the "Manson family" and leader of the Tate-LaBianca murders in August 1969.

References

Bibliography

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Maps

Map of Denton County and neighboring counties in the Dallas area (TxDOT)

Websites

• Census.gov QuickFacts for Denton County
• Census.gov Facts page for Denton County --

References

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