Cooper, Texas

Cooper, Texas
City
The gazebo on the square in downtown Cooper
Location of Cooper, Texas
Coordinates: 33°22′22″N 95°41′21″W / 33.37278°N 95.68917°W / 33.37278; -95.68917
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Delta
Founded	1870
Named for	Leroy Cooper
Government
• Mayor	Darren Braddy[1]
• City Council	Council members David Phillips E.J. Cates JoAnn Preas W.D. Wilkins Donna Thomason[1]
• Representative	Larry Phillips (R)[2]
• TX Senate	Bob Hall (R)[2]
• U.S. Congress	John Ratcliffe (R)[2]
Area [3]
• Total	1.47 sq mi (3.80 km2)
• Land	1.46 sq mi (3.79 km2)
• Water	0.01 sq mi (0.01 km2)
Elevation	482 ft (147 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	1,911
• Density	1,300/sq mi (500/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	75432[4]
Area code(s)	903, 430
FIPS code	48-16564[5]
GNIS feature ID	1354942[6]
Website	Official website

Cooper is a city in and the county seat of Delta County, in the U.S. state of Texas. Located between the north and south forks of the Sulphur River, Cooper is the largest settlement in Delta County. At the 2020 United States census, the city had a population of 1,911.^[7]

First inhabited by native people, Cooper was founded around 1870, at the same time that Delta County was established. Cooper grew rapidly and quickly became the center of local events. The city's economy relied primarily on agriculture and the shipping of local goods. In the mid-1890s, a railroad line was built through the city, assisting in Cooper's growth. The city continued to grow through the 1910s, and into the early 1920s. In 1926, however, the region's cotton crop failed, devastating the local economy. Many businesses were forced to close, including the railroad, and the city's population plummeted. Although Cooper began to recover during the mid-1930s, many people who left did not return, and the city never fully recovered. The local economy continued to rely on the growing of cotton as the main economy into the 1960s, until it began to shift to wheat growing in the early 1970s. The population of Cooper has been on a slow decline since the 1970s.

Cooper has no sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city's economy still relies largely on agriculture. Cooper is located on the eastern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex (DFW metroplex), a large, 12-county metropolitan area, one of the most populated in the country.