Sand Springs, TX

Sand Springs is an unincorporated census-designated place in eastern Howard County, about eight miles east of Big Spring. Interstate 20 and U.S. 80 run through the community, and the Missouri Pacific railroad once followed the same east-west corridor. Sand Springs Creek gives the place its name. The community developed in the late 1930s around gas stations and grocery stores, then added churches, homes, and roadside businesses in the following decades. Its map is a line of services and residences along the West Texas highway, set against the open plains of the Permian Basin.

Sand Springs is part of Coahoma Independent School District, whose schools are in nearby Coahoma. Howard County's broader education map also falls within the Howard College service area, with the college's main campus in Big Spring. The I-20 frontage road remains the strongest local connector, tying Sand Springs to Big Spring westward and to communities across Howard County eastward. The place keeps the shape of a highway settlement: a creek, a rail corridor, a school district, and a string of homes and businesses spread across the county's wide-open landscape.