The brothers soon found their true calling as buffalo hunters and established an outpost along the North Palo Duro Creek.

[5][6][7] The depletion of the buffalo herds led in part to the ongoing conflict between Indians and settlers.

The Second Battle of Adobe Walls took place in neighboring Hutchinson County in 1874 and led to the Red River War of 1874–1875.

The Comanches, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa saw the fort and the decimation of the buffalo herd as threats to their existence.

[8] The Red River War of 1874-1875 was a United States Army campaign to force the removal of Indians in Texas and their relocation to reservations, to open the region to white settlers.

[11] In November 1876, Kansan Thomas Sherman Bugbee established the Quarter Circle T Ranch.

[13] Coloradan Richard E. McNalty moved to Texas and began the Turkey Track Ranch, which he sold to Charles Wood and Jack Snider in 1881.

[14] Scotland- born James M. Coburn formed the Hansford Land and Cattle Company.

[16][17] In 1909, Anders L. Mordt began to bring in Norwegian farmers to settle the northern part of the county, centering on a rural community they named Oslo.

Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway built southward in the 1920s leading to Gruver, becoming the second-largest town in the county.

The county has been strongly Republican at a presidential level since 1952, with no Democrat exceeding Texas native Lyndon B. Johnson's 41.8% share of the vote in 1964 during that time.