Randall County

Horace Randal, the county's namesake, spelled his name with one l; the Handbook of Texas says a clerical error doubled it. Born in McNairy County, Tennessee, in 1833, he grew up near San Augustine and in 1849 became one of the first two Texans appointed to West Point. After frontier service with the First Dragoons he joined the Confederacy, raised the Twenty-eighth Texas Cavalry around Marshall and commanded a brigade of Walker's Texas Division. His promotion to brigadier general was never confirmed. He died of wounds received at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas, in 1864.

What the plaque says

Randall County Formed from Young and Bexar territories. Created August 21, 1876 Organized July 27, 1889 Named in honor of Horace Randall 1821-1864 A distinguished Confederate officer who fell in battle at the head of his brigade. Canyon, the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 0.6 mi
  The Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.
• Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1938 Depression-era lake on Tierra Blanca Creek that has gone dry, now 7,664 acres of shortgrass, cottonwood canyon and a prairie dog town on the High Plains south of Umbarger.
• Palo Duro Canyon State Park — 13 mi
  The upper end of the canyon the state bought in 1933, where CCC crews built the road to the floor and the army burned the winter camps of the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne in 1874.
• TEXAS Outdoor Musical — 14 mi
  A summer pageant of Panhandle settler life staged since 1966 in the Pioneer Amphitheater, built into a basin of Palo Duro Canyon below a 600-foot cliff.

More markers nearby

• First National Bank — steps away
• Smith Building (Palace Hotel) — steps away
• Clyde & Grace Warwick — steps away
• The Canyon News — steps away