Stinnett started in 1926 as a Rock Island shipping point and took the Hutchinson County seat that same year. Its biggest growth came with gas and petroleum work after 1940.
Tell us what the water is doing and we’ll call you back to set up a free on-site look.
Stinnett started in 1926 as a Rock Island shipping point and took the Hutchinson County seat that same year. Its biggest growth came with gas and petroleum work after 1940.
Stinnett was founded in the summer of 1926 on the Amarillo branch of the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway, and named for Albert Sidney Stinnett of Amarillo, who helped buy the right-of-way. Promoters sold lots at "Dollar Day" picnics, the population jumped to around 2,500 almost overnight, and that September a special election moved the county seat here from Plemons. The present courthouse was dedicated on December 15, 1928.
A lot of those first residents lived in boxcar shanties and canvas tents. When oil prices fell in 1930, the town dropped to about 500 people.
Hutchinson County ranges from about 2,750 to 3,400 feet in elevation, according to the Handbook of Texas. Its northern part is high rolling plain; the Canadian River angles across the south, with broken land along it and its tributaries. Stinnett is in the central part of the county.
The county averages roughly 19.9 inches of rain a year. Spread evenly, that would be easy to manage. The December 2023 storm below shows how much can land at once, and a mid-century lot with settled grades doesn't have much margin for it.
The full range of fixes, chosen for what your lot is actually doing — start with why yards here hold water:
Stinnett's lasting growth came later. Between 1940 and 1960 the population more than quadrupled, from 635 to 2,695, as natural gas and petroleum development created steady jobs. A good share of the town's housing likely dates from that twenty-year window.
Age shows up in drainage. Original clay or cast-iron lines crack, slabs settle a little out of level, and decades of topsoil, mulch and sod creep up until the ground beside the foundation sits higher than it did on move-in day. None of that is dramatic by itself; together it turns every storm toward the house.
Panhandle drainage problems aren't only a spring story. The weather service in Amarillo called the December 12-15, 2023 storm an abnormally wet system for a Panhandle December, and a mesonet station just north-northwest of Stinnett logged 3.17 inches of precipitation over those days.
Winter water is slow to leave. With low sun and cold ground, a saturated yard can stay soft for weeks, and a soggy strip along the foundation stays wet long after the storm is forgotten.
Across the Panhandles, totals from that system ran from just under an inch to just over 5 inches. Where snow fell, NWS noted, near-freezing surface temperatures often melted it on contact -- which means it behaved like more rain on ground that was already full.
We start at the foundation and work outward: where the soil sits against the slab, where the downspouts dump, and whether an old line still carries water or just holds it. From there the fix might be foundation drainage, repairing a failed drain, or regrading to win back the slope a lot has lost over the years.
If you want to help us read your yard, watch it the next time it storms. Note where water stands an hour after the rain stops and again the next day, which downspouts overflow, and whether the wet spot follows a fence, a driveway edge or the drip line of the roof. Those few observations often point straight at the cause.
Stinnett sits at the junction of State highways 152 and 207 in central Hutchinson County, and it's part of the Panhandle area we cover alongside Borger -- nobody on our end is headquartered in Stinnett itself. Give us a call at (806) 606-0904 and we'll phone back to line up a free assessment of your Stinnett property. There's no obligation.
Free on-site drainage assessments in Stinnett and across the Panhandle. Call or send the form and we’ll set up a time to look.