Putoff Canyon

Putoff Canyon lies three miles north of Jayton, the Handbook of Texas says. Jayton began as Jay Flat, two miles northwest of its present site and named for the Jay family, early ranchers; Daniel M. Jay got a post office there in 1886. In 1907 the settlement moved to the new Stamford and Northwestern line as Jayton, and it incorporated on February 11, 1910. The Jayton Herald was founded about 1908. Fires destroyed or damaged many early businesses until a water system was built in 1925, and cotton led the economy until the 1930s.

What the plaque says

(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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spur-Dickens County Museum — 20 mi
  Dickens County's museum on the main block of Spur, a town born on November 1, 1909, when the first train reached the land a New York syndicate was selling off from the Spur Ranch.
• 6666 Supply House — 28 mi
  The Four Sixes Ranch's store in Guthrie, where Burk Burnett kept his office and bed, still the town's only shop and now a stop for travelers from as far as Australia.

More markers nearby

• Double Mountain Salt Works (on Brazos River) — 3.1 mi
• Kent County — 3.1 mi
• Peacock — 13 mi
• Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Spur — 21 mi