Tulia took its name, by way of a clerk's error, from Tule Creek. Its draws cross level Swisher County plains and meet just east of town.
Tell us what the water is doing and we’ll call you back to set up a free on-site look.
Tulia took its name, by way of a clerk's error, from Tule Creek. Its draws cross level Swisher County plains and meet just east of town.
In 1887 a post office opened in James A. Parrish's dugout on Middle Tule Draw, nine miles west of present-day Tulia. The name chosen was Tule, after the creek, but somewhere along the line a clerk changed it to Tulia. The office moved east in 1889, and the town became the Swisher County seat in 1890.
Tule Creek starts as three draws. The North and Middle draws run east, side by side, for twenty-six miles and unite about three miles east of Tulia. The Handbook of Texas says these intermittent streams have no appreciable effect on the terrain until they converge -- in plain terms, there's no deep valley near town waiting to carry storm runoff away.
Downstream, things change. In eastern Swisher County the sandy creek bed drops into Tule Canyon, cut into the edge of the Llano Estacado, and the canyon eventually merges with Palo Duro Canyon. North Tule Draw was dammed in the 1940s to hold a small earthen reservoir, and Mackenzie Dam on Tule Creek, finished in 1974, formed a reservoir built to supply Tulia, Silverton, Lockney and Floydada.
None of that helps a yard in town. Near Tulia the ground is still level plain, so a lot has to make its own grade toward the street. When it can't, water finds the house.
The full range of fixes, chosen for what your lot is actually doing — start with why yards here hold water:
Tulia's boom started when the Santa Fe line reached town in December 1906. A brick schoolhouse followed in 1907, a domed brick courthouse in 1909, and in 1911 voters approved bonds for a waterworks system. During the 1920s the main streets were paved with brick.
A house near the square may be close to a century old, built before anyone thought about gutters, downspout extensions or how a slab poured next door decades later would redirect the flow. Older lots like these usually need their original fall restored more than they need anything exotic.
The county averages about 18.9 inches of rain a year. It also holds a record: the coldest temperature ever recorded in Texas, 23 below zero, at Tulia on February 12, 1899.
That second number matters for drainage more than you'd think. A discharge line or pop-up emitter that holds water can freeze solid in a hard cold snap, and then the next rain has nowhere to exit. We pitch lines so they drain dry between storms.
The Handbook describes Swisher County soils as ranging from alluvial silts to sandy types mixed with disintegrated rock. On the tighter, siltier ground, water pools; on sandier ground, it can soak in quickly and then show up later at a low spot.
Depending on which you have, we might regrade and add surface drainage, install a French drain along a wet side yard, or route downspouts underground to the street. On a lot with no fall at all, a sump can lift water out.
Tulia is about 49 miles south of Amarillo on U.S. 87, and it's part of the Panhandle region we serve -- we don't keep a local office in Swisher County. See the full service area list, or dial (806) 606-0904. We'll return your call to set a time for a free assessment at your Tulia home, with nothing owed and no obligation.
Free on-site drainage assessments in Tulia and across the Panhandle. Call or send the form and we’ll set up a time to look.