Town of Claude

Before it was Claude, the townsite briefly carried the name Armstrong City, given when the Fort Worth and Denver City built through in 1887. E. H. Trice platted the business district to line up with the railroad, which angles southeast to northwest, while later additions by other promoters were laid out by the compass. J. M. White's ornate three-story Palace Hotel was then the largest in the Panhandle. Hollywood came later: The Sundowners (1960), Hud (1963) and Sunshine Christmas (1977) were all filmed in Claude.

What the plaque says

Town of Claude Founded when Fort Worth & Denver Railroad built into area (1887). Claude Ayers, engineer on first passenger train through here, suggested town be named for him -- and citizens agreed. Jerry Cavanaugh, first resident, gave land for town. Post office was granted in 1888, with E.H. Trice, postmaster. Claude won a close race for county seat, 1890. Tie-breaking vote was cast by famous rancher Chas. Goodnight. Churches were established in 1890 and a school built in 1891. Noted Panhandle historian Laura V. Hamner was an early teacher. Town was incorporated in 1909. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Gem Theatre — steps away
  Claude's small-town movie house of 1915, restored by the Armstrong County Museum and remembered for the scene in Hud where Homer and Lonnie Bannon sing along to Clementine.
• Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site — 11 mi
  The two-story house the Goodnights moved into on December 27, 1887, after leaving the JA, with a porch that looks over bison descended from the calves Mary Ann saved.
• Carson County Square House Museum — 16 mi
  The 1880s ranch cottage that is the oldest house in the town of Panhandle, at the heart of a twenty-one-building museum of the plains from mammoth hunters to the oil boom.
• Lighthouse Trail — 21 mi
  The park's most walked trail, 2.8 miles each way across the canyon floor to the Lighthouse, a hoodoo of Triassic sandstone balanced on a pedestal of softer red shale.

More markers nearby

• Boy Scout Troop No. 17 — steps away
• Route of Coronado Expedition — steps away
• Great Panhandle Indian Scare of 1891 — steps away
• Dr. and Mrs. Wm. A. Warner — steps away