The territory that is now Colorado County has been continually inhabited by humans for about 12,000 years. The Coco branch of the Karaknawa are said to have hunted in the area, while Tonkawa crossed the area from the south. The first record of an Anglo settler coming through the area that is now Colorado County was January 20, 1687, when René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle camped along Skull Creek. The party located an Indigenous village and named it Hebemes. The fourth expedition of Alonso De León may have crossed in to the county while looking for Fort St. Louis in 1689. The area was settled by Anglo colonists who were part of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred starting in 1821. Some families settled near Beeson's Ford, a few miles south of Columbus' present day location. The area was active during the days of the Texas Revolution. Dilue Rose Harris wrote her memoir of the Runaway Scrape from within the boundaries of Colorado County. The county was one of the original Republic of Texas Counties, formed in 1836. Following the American Civil War, the county had one of the larger populations of African American freedmen in the state, and was granted a Freedman's Bureau office in Columbus. Many European settlers, particularly Germans, and Moravians and Bohemians from what is now Czechoslovakia, began to settle in the county after the civil war, although Germans had settled in the area as early as 1830.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,390 people, 7,641 households, and 5,402 families residing in the county. The population density was 21 people per square mile. There were 9,431 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 72.79% White, 14.80% Black or African American, 0.37% Native American, 0.21% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 10.04% from other races, and 1.78% from two or more races. 19.74% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 7,641 households out of which 31.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.30% were married couples living together, 10.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.30% were non-families. 26.20% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.08. In the county, the population was spread out with 25.60% under the age of 18, 8.90% from 18 to 24, 23.80% from 25 to 44, 23.10% from 45 to 64, and 18.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 95.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.40 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,425, and the median income for a family was $41,388. Males had a median income of $30,063 versus $20,014 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,910. About 12.30% of families and 16.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.00% of those under age 18 and 15.80% of those age 65 or over.
Like many southern counties, Colorado County was predominantly Democratic prior to the 1960s and predominantly Republican since then. The last Democrat to carry the state was Jimmy Carter in 1976; George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump all received more than 70 percent of the vote in the county.
