Stephenville
City
Downtown Stephenville, Texas
Location of Stephenville, Texas
Coordinates: 32°12′35″N 98°14′15″W / 32.20972°N 98.23750°W / 32.20972; -98.23750
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Erath
Government
• Type	Council-Manager
• City Council	Mayor
Area [1]
• Total	11.91 sq mi (30.85 km2)
• Land	11.89 sq mi (30.79 km2)
• Water	0.023 sq mi (0.06 km2)
Elevation [2]	1,342 ft (409 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	20,897
• Density	1,440/sq mi (556.1/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	76401-76402
Area code	254
FIPS code	48-70208[3]
GNIS feature ID	2411977[2]
Website	Stephenville, Texas

Stephenville is a city in and the county seat of Erath County, Texas, United States.^[4] It sits on the North Bosque River, which rises nearby. Founded in 1854, it is home to Tarleton State University.^[5] Stephenville's population was 20,847 as of the 2020 census, and it is the principal city in the Stephenville Micropolitan Statistical Area. Stephenville is among several communities that call themselves the "Cowboy Capital of the World".^[5]

Stephenville is founded by and named after John M. Stephen, who settled there in 1854, and donated the land for the townsite laid out by George B. Erath when the county was organized in 1856. In the first two years of its settlement, the population increased to 776. The population then declined until 1871, because the townsite was in Comanche territory and raids were common, and because the hardships of the American Civil War led citizens to leave. The population grew after Stephenville became an agriculture and livestock center. Coal mining also became important to the area in 1886, and was a major segment of the economy for the 30 years.^[6]

Stephenville was incorporated in 1889, with the arrival of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway. In the 1890s, many of the buildings around the town square were built, Tarleton State University opened, and the community's two newspapers merged to become the Empire-Tribune, which is still in operation. In February 1907, the Stephenville North and South Texas Railway was chartered by Stephenville and Hamilton business interests, which sold the line in 1910 to the St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas system. In the 20th century, industry became an important part of Stephenville, and the population has steadily increased since the 1920s.^[6]

In January 2008, dozens of people in Stephenville reported seeing patterns of lights in the night sky, which were eventually discovered to have been caused by a military training maneuver. Some described it as a single large unidentified flying object.^[7][8] The Air Force Reserve issued a statement from the NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base that jets from the 457th Fighter Squadron were in military airspace designated for training during the time people reported seeing the lights.^[9] The F-16s had been engaged in training maneuvers and dropping counter-measure flares used to confuse heat-seeking missiles.^[10] Following news reports of the UFO sighting, "media calls came from all over the world", and local police Constable Lee Roy Gaitan gave more than 100 interviews. The town reacted in a "UFO frenzy"; T-shirts proclaiming the town "Alien Capital of the World" and "Erath County — the New Roswell", were rushed into production, and the local high school suddenly received $7,000 for college scholarships.^[11]

in 2021, a group by the name of 764 based on Stephenville's Zip Code was founded by Bradley Chance Cadenhead.^[12] At the age of 15, school dropout Cadenhead (alias: "Felix") learned techniques of exploiting minors and sextortion on a Discord server named CVLT and subsequently founded 764. In the online game Minecraft, Cadenhead met an unknown person who assisted him in establishing 764.^[13] The 764 network is primarily active on Discord and Telegram, and to some extent on the gaming platforms Roblox and Minecraft.^[14] It is also publicly active on online forums.^[15][16] Its members are involved in systematic sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of minors through sextortion and other practices and in distributing child pornography and depictions of violence. Victims are selected from the 9- to 17-year-old age group, with a preference for children from marginalized backgrounds or with mental health issues.^[17][18]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 11.89 square miles (30.8 km²), of which 11.89 square miles (30.8 km²) are land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²) is covered by water.^{[citation needed]}

Stephenville is served by three major US highways – US Highway 377, US Highway 281, and US Highway 67 (the last of which joins US Hwy 377).^{[citation needed]}

Stephenville's climate is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Stephenville has a humid subtropical climate, with the abbreviation Cfa.^[19]

As of the 2020 census, Stephenville had a population of 20,897, a median age of 24.2 years, 17.6% of residents were under the age of 18, 11.7% were 65 years of age or older, there were 87.9 males for every 100 females, and there were 85.1 males for every 100 females age 18 and over.^[23] 99.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 1.0% lived in rural areas.^[24] There were 7,474 households in Stephenville, of which 26.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 34.1% were married-couple households, 24.6% had a male householder with no spouse or partner present, and 33.1% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present; 33.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.^[23] There were 8,482 housing units, of which 11.9% were vacant; the homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 13.7%.^[23]

According to Data USA, 95.5% of residents are U.S. citizens, the median household income was $48,602 (a 3.06% increase from $47,161 the previous year), and Tarleton State University awarded 3,536 degrees in 2021. That source also reports that no households reported speaking a non-English language at home as their primary shared language, the median property value was $153,400, the homeownership rate was 45.9%, the average commute time was 16.1 minutes, and the average car ownership was two vehicles per household.^[26]

Stephenville is served by the Stephenville Independent School District and two colleges: Tarleton State University and Ranger College.^{[citation needed]}

• Jessie G. Beach (1887–1954), paleontologist and museum aid, born in Stephenville^[27]
• Art Briles,^[28] former football coach at Baylor University
• Milton Brown, recording artist, cofounder of Western Swing born in Stephenville
• Bradley Cadenhead, founder of the sextortion network 764, the name of which refers to Stephenville's ZIP codes
• Giovannie and the Hired Guns, American country rock band
• Leon Hale, newspaper writer, born in Stephenville
• Dustin Hodge,^[29] television producer and writer
• Brock Holt, professional baseball player, graduated from Stephenville High School^[30]
• Jewel, singer-songwriter, lived on a Stephenville ranch^[31]
• Kevin Kolb, NFL quarterback
• Jess Lockwood, world champion bull rider^[32]
• J.B. Mauney, world champion bull rider
• Ty Murray, world champion rodeo cowboy^[33]
• Jim Sharp, world champion bull rider
• Jarrett Stidham, NFL quarterback with the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos
• Carey Wentworth Styles, newspaperman, founder of The Atlanta Constitution^[34]
• Hugh Wolfe, professional football player
• Hudson Westbrook, country music singer and songwriter^[35]

• Stephenville Official City Site