Big Spring, Texas. Big Spring, the county seat of Howard County, is at the "crossroads" of Interstate Highway 20, U.S. highway 87, State Highway 350, Farm Road 700, and the Missouri Pacific line. The city is in a rocky gorge where the northern limit of the Edwards Plateau and the southern most hills of the Caprock converge. It is named for the "big spring" in Sulphur Draw, historical watering place for coyotes, wolves, and herds of buffalo, antelope, and mustangs; the spring was a source of conflict between Comanche and Shawnee Indians. Signal Mountain, ten miles southeast of Big Spring, was a landmark used by early cattlemen. In 1849 Capt. Randolph B. Marcy's expedition reached Big Spring on the return trip from Santa Fe and marked it as a campsite on the Overland Trail to California.  2000 Howard County Population: 33,627.                             Local Map