Potter County, Establishing of

🏛️The era

For most of human history, the land that is now Potter County belonged to the peoples of the Southern Plains. The Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa all ranged across these grasslands, following the buffalo that sustained them. Long before them, ancient peoples had lived and worked here too, as the flint quarries at Alibates show.

From around 1600, Spanish military expeditions and French traders crossed this country, and travelers from New Mexico to the west knew it well. Routes crossed the region, including the Great Spanish Road linking Santa Fe and San Antonio in 1786 and the Fort Smith–Santa Fe Trail of 1840. In 1849, gold seekers headed for California followed that trail across the Panhandle.

The decisive change came in the 1870s. The great buffalo herds were slaughtered by commercial hunters. At the same time, the U.S. Army waged a campaign against the Southern Plains tribes, the Red River War of 1874–75. The tribes were forced onto reservations in Indian Territory. Within just a few years, a way of life centuries old was gone, and cattlemen moved onto the open grass.

👥People & events

The county bears the name of Robert Potter, a colorful and controversial figure of the Texas Republic. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, served as the Republic's Secretary of the Navy in 1836, and sat in its Senate. His life ended violently in 1842 amid the feuding that tore through East Texas in those years. He never saw the high plains that would carry his name.

The Texas Legislature created Potter County in 1876, when no one lived here to govern. Between 1874 and 1878, the Native peoples were expelled and the buffalo gave way to longhorn cattle. In 1877 the famous LX Ranch set up its headquarters about 20 miles north of this site. In 1881 the Frying Pan Ranch built its headquarters 16 miles to the west. It was the first large ranch fenced with barbed wire, a new invention that would soon end the open range.

Railroads crossing the Panhandle made local government worth having. On August 30, 1887, the voters who organized Potter County were cowboys from the LX and Frying Pan outfits, a fitting beginning for a county built on cattle.

The story didn't end with ranching. In 1918, Potter County was the discovery site of the vast Panhandle-Hugoton Gas Field, which brought a new kind of wealth to the plains.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

Few places pack so much of the American West into a single county. Potter County holds evidence of human life going back thousands of years, a crossroads of Spanish and French colonial ambition, a trail used by the California Gold Rush, and the tragic final chapter of the Southern Plains tribes' independence.

Its ranching history is central to the national story of the cattle frontier. The big Panhandle ranches were part of the boom that turned the Great Plains into cattle country after the Civil War. Barbed wire, which the Frying Pan used on a large scale, changed the West for good. It ended the free movement of herds and helped close the open range.

Then there is Alibates. For thousands of years, people quarried its distinctive, colorful flint to make tools and weapons, and they traded it widely across the Plains. The quarries remind visitors that this land's history did not begin with Spanish explorers or Texas cowboys. It reaches back to some of the earliest people in North America.

🧭If you visit

This marker stands in Amarillo, the county seat, which grew up with the railroads the inscription mentions. As you stand here, imagine the county as it was when the legislature created it in 1876: open grassland with no towns and no fences, only wind and sky.

For the deep past, head north to Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, managed by the National Park Service near Lake Meredith. Access to the quarries themselves has typically been by ranger-guided tour, so check with the Park Service before you go. There you can see the rainbow-streaked flint that ancient peoples prized.

Amarillo makes a great base for a Panhandle road trip. Historic Route 66 runs through the city, and dramatic Palo Duro Canyon lies a short drive to the south. As you cross the plains, keep an eye out for barbed wire running across the grass. It's the same invention the Frying Pan Ranch helped bring to this country.