Motley County

Comanches (Numunuu) of the Wanderers, Liver-Eaters and Downstream bands hunted here before settlement. The Handbook of Texas notes that the county's name honors Junius William Mottley, misspelled when the county was named. In the mid-1870s Frank Collinson, who had known the country as a buffalo hunter in 1874, brought in 8,000 of John S. Chisum's cattle for Samuel R. Coggin to start the first ranch in the area. The 1880 census counted twenty-four residents. In 1890 thirteen ranches ran 42,781 cattle with almost no crops, and an incomplete tax roll of 1891 listed 317 taxpayers.

What the plaque says

Formed from Young and Bexar territories; created August 21, 1876, organized February 5, 1891. Named in honor of Dr. Junius William Motley, 1812-1836, signer of the Texas declaration of Independence, aide to General Rusk at the Battle of San Jacinto where he was mortally wounded. Matador, the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Motley County Historical Museum — 1.0 mi
  Matador's museum in the 1928 Traweek Hospital, in the county seat a Scottish-owned ranch created by having its cowboys open one-day businesses to pass a state rule.
• Matador Wildlife Management Area — 25 mi
  Twenty-eight thousand acres of mesquite, shinnery oak and juniper hills in the Rolling Plains north of Paducah, bought by the state in 1959 for wildlife research and open to permit holders.
• Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum — 33 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

• Bob's Oil Well — 0.9 mi
• The Motley County Railroad — 1.3 mi
• Roaring Spring — 10 mi
• Tee Pee City — 11 mi