Snyder, the county seat of
Scurry County, is at the junction of US highways 84 and 180, eighty-seven miles southeast of
Lubbock between
Post and
Sweetwater near Lake Thomas.
W.H. (Pete) Snyder opened a trading post there in 1878.
Oil has remained important to the city's economy. In the late 1960s Scurry County became the leading oil-producing county in Texas as the result of a locally developed method of injecting carbon dioxide into the formation to increase the pressure and thereby increase the yield. In 1973 Scurry oil companies recovered their billionth barrel of oil. In 1987 ranching and cotton farming also continued to employ a large part of the population.
In 1990 the population was 12,195.
