Putoff Canyon
Jayton, Kent County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(East of here) Named for a Mr. Putoff, early settler. In region of Salt Water, canyon was noted for its freshwater spring "strong enough to swim a horse". Area was a resort, 1900-1914, for many artists. Western writer Zane Grey used region as setting for his novel "The Thundering Herd". (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In a stretch of salty West Texas country, Putoff Canyon stood out for a freshwater spring said to be "strong enough to swim a horse," and its name honors an early settler called Putoff. From 1900 to 1914 the canyon drew artists as a scenic resort, and western novelist Zane Grey used the surrounding region as the setting for his book The Thundering Herd. The place blends frontier settlement with a touch of literary fame from the golden age of the Western.
Why it matters
Landscapes like Putoff Canyon shaped the myth of the American West, feeding the popular novels that fixed the frontier in the national imagination.
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Related people
- · Zane Grey
- · Putoff
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Kent County
Jayton, TX
Kent County was carved from older Texas territories in 1876 and formally organized in 1892, taking its name from Andrew Kent, one of the defenders who fell at the Alamo. Its county seat first sat at Clairmont before moving to Jayton in 1952. The State of Texas erected this marker during the 1936 centennial of independence.
Old Kent County Jail
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Raised in 1894 from red sandstone quarried nearby, this jail served the raw frontier of Kent County, where its most frequent guests were horse and cattle thieves, murderers, and moonshiners. Reputed to be one of the hardest lockups in West Texas to break out of, it never saw a successful escape. The stout little building is a relic of an era when law had to be built as solidly as the crimes it aimed to hold.
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This memorial honors Private Gregg, William Max, W. H. Kilpatrick and other soldiers of the 4th U.S. Cavalry who died in this region during the Indian Wars campaigns led by General Ranald S. Mackenzie in the early 1870s. Fighting the Comanche across the West Texas plains, these troops faced hardship and danger far from public notice. The marker's stark, dated language — praising them for having "cleared the plains for the white men" — itself reflects the attitudes of the era in which it was written.
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