Bosque County was named for the Bosque River, from the Spanish word for "Woods." The territory that is now part of the county was traversed in 1841 by the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition, and Major George B. Erath, a noted surveyor and soldier, explored the region before settlement. The first colonists established homes in 1850-51. Immigrant groups included English settlers at Kent, Norwegians at Norse and elsewhere, and Germans in the eastern part of the county. Formally created and organized in 1854, Bosque County has traditionally had a farming-ranching economy, and the Chisholm Cattle Trail crossed the area in the 1870s.