 This county was also selected as an alternate site for a possible nuclear waste disposal repository, but was later dropped.Jesse Frank Ford, founder of Arrowhead Mills, led the opposition to the Deaf Smith site on grounds of contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer, the source of much of the water supply for West Texas.According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.1%) is covered by water.