Bowie · In-town
3/2 on a quarter-acre
$165,000 – $220,000 median. Walking distance to schools and downtown. Most built 1950–1980.
LIVING GUIDE
Living in Montague County.
Eight towns, 20,000 people, 925 square miles of north Texas between the Red River and Fort Worth. This guide covers the practical facts: housing costs, schools, commutes, healthcare, and what you actually do on a weekend.
Population
20,100
County seat
Montague
Largest city
Bowie
Square miles
931
Median home
$195,000
Est.
1857
The eight towns
Bowie (pop. 5,100) is the commercial center — hospital, grocery chains, hardware stores, and the only traffic light in the county worth mentioning. Nocona (pop. 2,900) is the second city, known for boot manufacturing and Lake Nocona. Saint Jo (pop. 1,000) has a limestone town square that dates to 1898. Montague is the county seat: courthouse, small post office, very little else by design.
Forestburg, Ringgold, Bellevue, and Sunset are unincorporated communities with volunteer fire departments, a post office each, and strong school loyalty. Ringgold's school district has 180 students and a perfect-attendance trophy case. If you are relocating from a metropolitan area, the key adjustment is that "nearby" means 20 minutes, not 5.
Housing
Montague County is still a buyer's market in 2026, though the ranchette wave since 2020 has compressed inventory on lots 5 acres and under.
County-wide · Land
5–20 acre tracts
$4,500 – $8,000 per acre depending on improvements. Red clay soil in the west, post-oak sandy in the east.
Nocona · Lake area
Lake Nocona waterfront
$275,000 – $450,000. Limited inventory. East shore remains undeveloped public land.
Property taxes average 1.6–1.9% of assessed value. No city income tax. Homestead exemption applies county-wide. Flood risk is low except for bottomland parcels along Farmers Creek and the Red River.
Schools
Seven independent school districts serve the county. Bowie ISD is the largest with about 1,400 students; it feeds to Bowie High School, which graduates roughly 120 seniors per year.
Bowie ISD
1,400 students
Two elementary schools, one middle, one high. Career and technical education program.
Nocona ISD
680 students
Strong ag-science program. 4A football. Lake Nocona is the cross-country course.
Saint Jo ISD
420 students
Small-school state championship track record in UIL academics.
Ringgold ISD
180 students
K–12 in one building. Class of 2025 was 18 students.
Forestburg ISD
220 students
Strong 4-H program, ranching-curriculum electives.
Texas public schools use an A–F accountability rating. Bowie ISD and Nocona ISD each earned a B in 2024. No private K–12 schools operate within county lines; the nearest are in Wichita Falls (55 miles) and Denton (75 miles).
Healthcare
Bowie Memorial Hospital is the county's only inpatient facility — a 25-bed critical-access hospital on US-287. Emergency services, surgical suite, lab, and imaging on-site.
Primary care is available in Bowie (4 physicians), Nocona (2 physicians + 1 PA-C), and Saint Jo (1 family practice clinic, Monday–Thursday). Specialist care requires travel to Wichita Falls (Sheppard AFB area medical corridor) or Denton/Fort Worth. Oncology, cardiology, and orthopedics are all drive-in. Most residents maintain a specialist relationship in one of those cities.
Dental: three practices in Bowie, one in Nocona. Nearest orthodontist is in Wichita Falls. Mental health: one licensed counselor in Bowie (private pay), telehealth options through the hospital system.
Recreation
The county's outdoor inventory is genuine: a navigable reservoir, post-oak woodlands, creek-bottom hunting leases, and two public parks worth mentioning.
Nocona
Lake Nocona
1,470 acres. Boat launches free. Bass fishing, crappie in spring. East shore undeveloped.
Forestburg
Watermelon country
July–August. Drive the county roads between Forestburg and Sunset. Hand-lettered signs, cash only.
Nocona
Nocona Boot Country
Nocona Industries still manufactures boots locally. The Tales 'n Trails Museum has the full history.
Hunting leases cover the majority of private land in the county. White-tailed deer, feral hog, turkey, and dove seasons all draw visitors from DFW. If you are new to the county, ask a neighbor before crossing fence lines — most posted land is actively hunted from August through February.
Commerce & daily life
Bowie has a Brookshire Brothers grocery, a Dollar General cluster, two hardware stores, and a dozen restaurants. That is roughly what you can expect to find without driving out of county.
Nocona has a pharmacy, two full-service restaurants, a feed store, and a boot outlet. Saint Jo has a gas station, a post office, a coffee window on the town square, and a grain elevator. The other four communities have gas and a post office each.
The nearest Walmart is in Bowie (on US-81 north of downtown). The nearest Costco and Target are in Wichita Falls (55 miles on US-287). H-E-B shoppers drive to Gainesville (40 miles). Most county households do a weekly grocery run to Bowie and a monthly larger haul to Wichita Falls or Denton.
High-speed internet: fiber is available in Bowie and parts of Nocona through the county broadband grant awarded in 2024. Fixed wireless serves most of the rural county at 25–100 Mbps. Starlink is common on outlying ranches.
Demographic snapshot
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 decennial + 2022 ACS 5-year estimates.
Total population
20,100
Median age
44 years
White alone
88%
Hispanic / Latino
9%
Median household income
$56,200
Poverty rate
13.4%
Owner-occupied housing
74%
High school graduate or higher
83%
Bachelor's degree or higher
16%
Veteran households
9%