DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to make sure you hear every word of it. Potter County. Even the name carries weight out here on the Panhandle, where the wind never really stops and the sky goes on longer than most people's patience.
The county is named for Robert Potter — Secretary of the Navy for the Republic of Texas in 1836, and Senator from 1840 to 1842. A man of some standing, clearly. But the land itself?
That story starts a whole lot earlier than any republic. The ground you're rolling across right now was familiar to Spanish military parties as far back as 1600. French traders knew it too.
And long before either of those groups showed up, this territory was ranged by Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa. They weren't passing through — this was their world. By 1786, the Great Spanish Road from Santa Fe to San Antonio was cutting right through this country.
Then came the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail of 1840, and nine years after that, California gold seekers followed that same path west in 1849 — boots worn thin, eyes fixed on something they hoped was out there. Now here's where it gets interesting. In 1876, the Texas Legislature created Potter County.
Created it — on paper, organized, official — even though not a single soul lived here. The county existed before the people did. That takes a particular kind of confidence.
The years 1874 to 1878 brought a transformation as brutal as it was swift. Indians were expelled. The buffalo that had covered this land like a living carpet were replaced by longhorns.
And in 1877, the famous LX Ranch was established, its headquarters sitting twenty miles north of the marker where these words are written. Then in 1881, the Frying Pan Ranch built its headquarters sixteen miles to the west — and the Frying Pan holds a particular distinction: it was the first large ranch fenced with barbed wire. You can almost hear the cattle industry clicking into a new gear.
Railroad construction across the Texas Panhandle made local government more than just a good idea — it made it necessary. And so on August the 30th, 1887, the cowboys of the LX and the Frying Pan became the electors. Cowboys casting votes to organize a county.
They did it, and Potter County was official in a way that a piece of legislation alone never quite manages. The county kept making history. In 1918, it became the discovery site of the vast Panhandle-Hugoton Gas Field — one of the largest natural gas fields ever found.
And then there's Alibates National Monument, established in 1965. An aboriginal flint quarry. Ruins of prehistoric Indian villages.
People living here as early as ten thousand years before the birth of Christ — long before the Spanish, long before the French, long before the LX or the Frying Pan or a single strand of barbed wire. Potter County. Named for a senator of a republic that no longer exists, sitting on ground that human hands have worked for ten millennia.
That's the kind of place that tends to make you feel like maybe you haven't been here quite as long as you thought.
What the marker says
Named for Robert Potter, Secretary of the Navy (1836) and Senator (1840-42) of the Republic of Texas. In territory ranged by Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa Indians, and since 1600 familiar to Spanish military parties and French traders. On established routes of the Great Spanish Road from Santa Fe to San Antonio (1786) and the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail of 1840 which was followed in 1849 by California gold seekers. Although still uninhabited, the county was created in 1876 by Texas Legislature. The years 1874-78 saw Indians expelled and buffalo replaced by longhorns. In 1877 the famous LX Ranch was established, with headquarters 20 miles north of this site. The Frying Pan, first large ranch fenced with barbed wire, in 1881 built its headquarters 16 miles to the west. Railroad construction across the Texas Panhandle made local government desirable. LX and Frying Pan cowboys were the electors who voted on Aug. 30, 1887, to organize Potter County. This county was discovery site (1918) of the vast Panhandle-Hugoton Gas Field. It is noted as location of Alibates National Monument (established 1965), an aboriginal flint quarry, with ruins of prehistoric Indian villages inhabited as early as 10,000 B.C. (1970).