DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Potter County — and I'll do my best to give it the weight it deserves. Now, out here on the Texas Panhandle, the land has a way of making you feel like you arrived late to something enormous. And in a sense, you did.
Because before Amarillo was Amarillo, before any of this was organized into anything resembling a county, this stretch of earth was carved out of two vast territories — Young and Bexar — and on August 21, 1876, the Texas legislature drew a line around it and called it Potter County. Just sat there for a spell after that, the way big things sometimes do. Eleven years, to be precise.
It wasn't until August 30, 1887, that the county was officially organized — meaning somebody finally showed up to run the place. But here's the question worth asking out here under this wide sky: who was Potter? Who was the man this county was named in honor of?
Robert Potter. Born 1800, died 1842. And in between those two years, friend, he packed in a life that most men couldn't manage in three.
He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Think on that for a moment. The Declaration.
He put his name on the document that said Texas would be its own nation, and he meant it. He served as Secretary of the Navy. He stood as a Senator in the Texas Congress in 1840.
A man of titles, of consequence, of history written in ink and ambition. And then 1842 came, and it didn't. That's the thing about naming a county after a man — the land outlasts the legend every time.
But the name keeps the story alive. Amarillo sits as county seat today, anchoring it all, the way a good county seat ought to. Potter County.
Formed from two territories, named for one man, and still out here holding its ground.
What the marker says
Formed from Young and Bexar Territories. Created August 21, 1876. Organized August 30, 1887. Named in Honor of Robert Potter 1800-1842. Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Secretary of the Navy. Senator in the Texas Congress, 1840. Amarillo, County Seat