Rocky Ford Crossing and Community

The river here is the North Fork of the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos, which in Lamb County is a mostly dry bed better known as Blackwater Draw, followed by a range of low sand hills as it meanders southeast across the northern part of the county. Two other Brazos tributaries, Running Water Creek and Yellow House River, also cross the county, and four small lakes, Soda, Bull, Illusion and Yellow, lie in its western half. The county sits 3,400 to 3,800 feet up and averages about eighteen inches of rain a year.

What the plaque says

Rocky Ford Crossing and Community (The ford was 0.5 mile to the west) The 840-mile Brazos River was both friend and foe to settlers. Here near the source of Double Mountain Fork, after XIT Ranch was sold to smaller operators about 1912, the river that had attracted settlers was found to obstruct wet-weather travel. In 1926, the settlers built a gyp-rock road across the valley and lined the river bed with rock, to make a passable road. They also built a tabernacle for church, elections, and other gatherings. New roads bypass Rocky Ford, yet the community still thrives. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge — 27 mi
  The oldest national wildlife refuge in Texas, a ring of salt lakes in the sandhills south of Muleshoe where tens of thousands of sandhill cranes winter in a wet year.

More markers nearby

• Sod House Spring — 4.9 mi
• One of the Trails of Col. Ranald S. MacKenzie — 6.9 mi
• Town of Amherst — 7.2 mi
• Replica of XIT's Giant Windmill — 11 mi