Floyd County

Before ranchers came, the county lay in the range of the Plains Apaches and then the Comanches. Quitaque Peak, a landmark for the Comanchero José P. Tafoya and other New Mexican traders, marked the southern edge of the Valley of Tears. After the Indians and buffalo were gone, the Baker brothers and O. J. Wiren set up the Quitaque Ranch, and Owens, Marseilles and Duncan grazed cattle and sheep on the H Bar L in Blanco Canyon. In 1884 Arthur B. Duncan's family became the first settlers, filing for land at Clarendon.

What the plaque says

Floyd County, formed from Young and Bexar territories. Created August 221, 1876. Organized May 28, 1890, Named in honor of Dolphin Ward Floyd, a captain who died at the Alamo. County seat, Floyd City, 1890; Floydada, since 1892. (1936)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum — 18 mi
  Crosbyton's museum of Blanco Canyon, built in 1958 as a copy of Hank Smith's Rock House, and the place to learn the canyon's 1871 fight between Mackenzie's cavalry and Quanah's Quahadi Comanche.

More markers nearby

• The Battle of Blanco Canyon — steps away
• Coronado in Blanco Canyon — steps away
• Roots of the Catholic Faith in West Texas — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Floydada — 6.4 mi