Find your fireplace in Briscoe County.

For most homes here, it comes down to propane or electric. Propane fireplaces and inserts are the practical stand-in for natural gas since there's no gas main serving the county, and they're what local dealers out of Amarillo and Plainview install most often. Electric fireplaces work well as supplemental heat or ambiance in a ranch house already running on propane or a heat pump, and they need no fuel delivery at all, which matters when the nearest propane truck route is a real drive. Wood and pellet stoves technically work fine in this climate, but with 1,002 people countywide there's no dealer, sweep, or pellet supplier close enough to support either one as a primary heat source.

It's uncommon, and it's worth being upfront about why. Oak, pecan, and mesquite all grow along the river breaks of the Prairie Dog Town Fork, and a few ranch families do burn mesquite in an outdoor fire pit or a barn stove. But installing and maintaining a wood-burning fireplace in a primary residence means finding a certified installer, a chimney sweep, and a reliable firewood source—none of which have a business case in a county this size. Homeowners who want that wood-fire experience typically end up looking at a gas unit with a realistic log set instead, or reserving actual wood burning for outdoor use.

It's not a realistic option locally, even though pellet fuel itself isn't hard to find regionally—Forest Energy and Lignetics both distribute pellets through Panhandle retailers. The gap is on the installation and service side: there's no pellet-stove dealer based close enough to Silverton to install, vent, and service a unit, handle warranty work, or keep it running through a cold snap. For the rare homeowner set on pellet heat, that generally means working with a dealer in Amarillo or Lubbock and budgeting for a longer service radius, which most people here decide isn't worth it compared to propane.

Propane appliance and gas-line work should go through a licensed LP-gas installer under Texas Railroad Commission rules regardless of where in the county you're building, and most dealers who cover Silverton handle that licensing and paperwork as part of the install. Because Briscoe County is unincorporated outside Silverton and has a small population, building permit requirements are lighter than in a metro county—but electrical work for a hardwired electric fireplace still needs to meet code, and any structural changes to a chimney or hearth are worth a call to the county before work starts.

Most gas and electric hearth dealers serving Briscoe County are based in Amarillo, Plainview, or Lubbock, all roughly an hour or more from Silverton, so expect a trip fee built into quotes and a bit more lead time on scheduling than you'd get in a bigger market. Booking your annual propane appliance check in late summer, before the first real cold front rolls off the Caprock, is the easiest way to avoid a multi-week wait once winter service calls start stacking up. For remote ranch properties even farther from Silverton, it's worth asking your installer about spare igniter parts on hand, since a return visit during a bad winter storm can take days.

Propane fireplaces and inserts typically run $3,500–$8,500 installed, with the higher end reflecting any new gas line run from an existing tank plus the extra trip cost of a crew coming from Amarillo or Lubbock. Electric fireplaces are the more budget-friendly option—$200–$2,500 for the unit itself, plus $300–$1,000 in labor if it's a built-in requiring a dedicated circuit rather than a plug-and-play insert. Given the drive distance involved, it's worth asking any dealer whether their quote already includes travel, since that can shift the total more here than it would in a city with several local competitors.

On average, a fireplace adds back to the home about the same amount you spent installing it. Add the monthly savings from heating the rooms you actually use instead of the whole house—often hundreds of dollars a year—and the value case is strong before you even count what a fire does for how your family uses the room.

For an average home—covering the fireplace, the vent pipe, and basic installation—a budget between $3,900 and $5,500 gives you a lot of options across wood, gas, and pellet. By the time you add finish work, gas line, and electrical, the average complete installation lands between $5,000 and $12,000 all-in. In a remodel or new build, a good rule is to put about 2.5% of the total project cost toward the fireplace.

Yes—by creating a comfort zone. A furnace heats every square foot of the house just to warm the one room you're in; a gas fireplace on low burns roughly a sixth of the gas a typical furnace does. Set the furnace around 55–60 degrees as a baseline, then heat the rooms your family actually uses. Families who heat this way commonly save $20–$60 a month.

If you're putting a fire in your house on purpose, it's best to work with an expert. Unless you're genuinely experienced in framing, gas line, vent pipe, and the national code on clearances to combustibles, have a professional do it—and ideally the same company that sells you the fireplace, so warranty, service, and liability all live under one roof.