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Canyons and Creeks
Canyons and Creeks
of the Lake Meredith Area
Big Blue Creek
William C. Moore, the foreman of the LX Ranch put several thousand head of
cattle on summer pasture in Big Blue Creek in 1878. In the fall of that year, Nick
Chaffin established the Pollard Ranch on Lower Big Blue. One of the tributaries of
the Blue is still called Pollard Creek. The structure in Chimney Hollow may be Chaffin's
cabin. The proprietors, Pollard and Snowden soon sold out to the LX Ranch. About 1889 or 1890,
Charlie Record built a house for Ed Trigg somewhere up Blue Creek. This was a frame structure,
and about five years later, it was destroyed by a tornado. No one was injured in the tornado,
but Ed received many cuts on his feet from nails and splinters while he was getting his family out.
In the early 1900's, the Saddler family took up on Blue Creek, which they sold to Joseph Young.
This spot was the rural post office in the early 1900's. Young sold the post office building to
Ed Reeves who moved later to Dalhart. The 1880 census shows a Millard Chaffin in Hartley County who
may have been in Nick Chaffin of the Pollard Ranch. If so, he was 34 years old, and born in Ohio.
On September 13, 1845 Abert and party camped on Blue Creek about one quarter of a mile from the
Canadian River. In 1873, William Dixon noted an abandoned camp formerly occupied by Mexicans
on Blue Creek. These were possibly comancheros. The 1900 Census of Moore County shows the following:
Saddler, Hubert A. white male born December 1847 in Arkansas Daughters Jasmine, Bertha, JohnAnn, Leila
and Martha all born in Arkansas from 1874-1891. Trigg, Ed B. born February 1861 in Mississippi, wife,
Minnie born June 1871 in Indiana, and children Ella, Carl and Gladdis all born in Texas from 1895-1899.
Living with them was a laborer named George A. (Burns) born May 1865 in Iowa.
Bonita Creek
The first mention of Bonita Creek is made in the
report of the Marcy Expedition which passed through the Texas
Panhandle in 1849. Bonita is the Spanish word for beautiful.
In the year 1878, Marion Armstrong built the
present structure on Lower Bonita Creek. The house was made from
native rock, cemented together with homemade mortar. The roof was
made from Cottonwood logs laid side by side across the uppermost
layer of rocks. These logs were then covered with willow branches to
make a watertight covering for the structure. The door was covered
with a wagon sheet in times of bad weather. A corral was placed near
the house. Above the house, there was a beaver dam, and Mr.
Armstrong built a ditch from this pond to a vegetable garden in the
valley.
A description of this structure written about 1935,
describes it as about sixteen by eighteen feet. The step stone still
remained at the southwest corner of the structure, and a chimney in
the southwest corner. Treasure hunters had pried up the hearth
stone, pushed it to one side, and dug under it to find the treasure
supposedly buried in every ruined stone house in the country. The
only part of the wall left standing was the west wall which had two
short pieces of board which perhaps supported a shelf. This wall was
made of red sandstone.
For a while this structure seems to have been the
Bonita Creek stage stop at a later date, and the Armstrong family
didn't live here very long, as by 1880, the census of Tascosa in
Oldham County shows the following family: Armstrong, Marion white
male age 24, Mail Carrier born Texas, parents born Kentucky. Wife
California white female age 23 born Georgia, parents born Georgia.
Children Thomas age 5 and Melvin age 2.
In 1879, while Mr. Armstrong was away, Mrs.
Armstrong and her friend Mrs. Willingham were staying in the cabin
with their children, when an Indian was spotted. They pretended to
have a man about the house, by having Mrs. Willingham dress as a man
and "hunt" quail in the yard. By 1880, the Willingham's were also
living in Tascosa.
In Upper Bonita Creek, was the headquarters of the
LX Ranch. This building was above the take line for Lake Meredith
Recreation Area, and was not included in the survey.
Previous to Marion Armstrong's rock house, there
was a dugout used by a group of robbers. The Armstrong family moved
into this dugout while they were building the rock house.
Dr. Henry C. Hoyt and "Latigo Jim" worked on the LX
in 1881, and lived in a line camp on Bonita Creek, possibly this
same house.
Bugbee Creek
Bugbee Canyon was named for Thomas Sherman Bugbee,
one of the earliest ranchers in the Texas Panhandle. There is no
evidence however that he ever lived on the creek. Mr. Bugbee was born
January 18, 1842 in Washington County Maine, and was a veteran of
the Civil War. In the spring of 1869, he and his associates drove
1200 head of cattle from Fort Worth to Idaho. He married Mary C.
Dunn of Sterling Kansas in 1872, and then settled first near Lakin
Kansas, and then in 1877 moved to Bugbee Canyon at Lake Meredith.
Perhaps Bugbee grazed his cattle in this canyon. His ranch was the
Quarter Circle T.
In 1896 or 1897, the family of Robert A Spurlock
moved into Bugbee Canyon, and built to present structures found on
this survey. They continued living here until 1913, when they moved
to Tucumcari New Mexico. R.A. Spurlock continued raising cattle near
Tucumcari for two or three years, and then moved to Young in
Pleasant Valley Arizona where he died March 1, 1927.
The first people to live in Bugbee may have been
Ike and George Meek. They are said to have lived seven miles below
the Levertons in Hutchinson County. They came in 1885 and 1886.
Evans Canyon
Evans built the first structure in Evans
Canyon. He was a surveyor, connected with Martin's for whom Martin's
Canyon was named. This structure was evidently built about 1882. In
1884, the Leverton Family moved in, and occupied the structure built
by Evans. Two families of Levertons evidently lived in the canyon at
first, those of John and his wife Mollie, and George W. and his wife
Cora. These small farmers were looked on as "nesters " by the big
ranches, and on December 1, 1886, Cape Willingham, Captain Arrington
and several others tried to arrest John Leverton, but he resisted
arrest, and was shot and killed. The 1900 Census of Moore County
showed George W. Leverton born March 1854 in Arkansas, wife Cora,
born May 1862 in Norway and children Baily R., Charlie, Esther,
Dwitt, Gracia and John D. born 1886 to 1899. The first school in
Moore County was held in a room of George Leverton's house. The
teacher was Lula Gammany.
John Leverton's children were the first born in
Moore County. The Leverton's moved to Arizona in 1906.
W.R. Ozier owned land near the mouth of Evans
Canyon in the early 1920's and Archie A. Stewart and his wife Maggie
Caroline Record lived there from 1921 till the spring of 1923.
Maggie Caroline Record Stewart was born in Moore County in 1897. The
1900 census show Polly Record a widow aged 37 living in Moore County
and being a stock raiser. Her husband was born in Iowa, and she was
born in Illinois. Children are Charley age 19, Joe age 17, Ike aged
14, Harrison age 11, Priscilla age 8, Thomas age 6 and Maggie C. age
2 born November 1897. The father not listed in the census was
Charles Hamilton Record.
Charles Hamilton Record built the house for the
Oziers in Evans Canyon, but before they moved in, they sold it to G.
B. Mann.
A small cemetery was located near the Leverton's
house in Evans Canyon. Buried in it were John Leverton, Mrs. William
R. Leverton, Casinda Leverton, Mary A. Leverton and Billy Green.
This Billy Green may be the William Green of the 1880 Potter County
Census. If so, he was 24 years old at the time, born in Texas and
was a cowboy on the LX Ranch.
The Ozier Ranch house was long known as the Haunted
House, since many people claimed to have seen a woman standing there
in a door or at a window. She was last seen in 1918.
The Spurlocks, Levertons and Foremans built one of
the first rural schoolhouses in Moore County. They obtained the
washed out timbers from the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad Bridge at
Tascosa. These they carried to a spot above the present Bugbee
Canyon which may then have been called Foreman Canyon. During the
1894-1895 term, this schoolhouse was built and while it was being
constructed school was conduced in a tent. Students included the
Foreman, Leveton, Spurlock and the Thompson children sisters to Mrs.
Leverton. They were from Canyon
Martin's Canyon
Martin's Canyon was named
for a Mr. Martin who was
associated with B.C. Evans as a railroad surveyor in the 1870's.
There is no record of his living in the canyon, though it is
possible that he did live there for a while. The first family known
to live in the canyon was that of Robert Archibald Spurlock, who
settled there in 1886. He was married to Elizabeth Phoebe Leverton, sister
of John and George Leverton who settled in Evans
Canyon. The 1900 census shows R.A. Spurlock born March 1852 in
Arkansas, wife S.P. born Jan. 1859 in Arkansas, and children
F.C.(son), David R., George F., F.C. (son) and F.F. (son) all born in
Arkansas between the years 1875 and 1885 and then children John M.,
Robert F., Quinn, Rawson and William born in Texas during the years
1887-1896, and an unnamed baby born May 1900.
In a sketch by Grace Foreman, she states that the
names of the children were David Reed, Mary Allie Lucretia, Franklin
Webster Burner, George Frederick, Festus Columbus, Flavius Theodore,
John Merion, Robert Fulton, Quintilla, Ranson Crockett, William
Houston, Richard Austin, Jessie Drucilla and Odes Edison. Of these,
Frank died young in Arkansas before they came to Texas.
A post office named Festus was set up in Martin's
Canyon in 1898 with Minnie Trigg as post mistress. This was later
moved to Mission near the Coon Ranch.
The Spurlocks moved to Arizona about 1917.
McDowell Creek
McDowell Creek was named for Oscar E. McDowell who
according to the 1900 census of Potter Census was born October 1868
in South Carolina, and was a farmer. He was at the time working for
the LX Ranch and probably in charge of a line camp. On August 19,
1902 he married Anna Mabry and they moved into a rock house in the
Weymouth pasture.
Plum Creek
When Lieutenant Abert came through this area in
1849, he came out on a sheer bluff on the north side of the river
which had agate strewn across the ground, and he named the area the
Agate Bluffs. This was a landmark on the Canadian River on the 1850
railroad map of the United States, and for many years afterward.
About 1903 Tom and Vera (Bennet) Swaggart moved
onto north Plum Creek. He had a cattle ranch and at time was a
partner of R.L. Crump.
On September 12, 1845 Lieutenant Abert and party
camped on Plum Creek. There was a Kiowa camp only one half mile up
stream.
J.L. Keller purchased school lands on both sides of
Plum Creek. The land to the west of the creek was purchased January
20, 1898, while that at the boat ramp side was purchased April 6,
1899, after he forfeited the first grant. The first grant was then
taken up by James h. Bell on July 20, 1890.
The 1900 census of Potter County show J.H. Bell as
a farmer born in Kentucky in January 1867. J.L. Keller is shown as a
laborer born August 1855 in Virginia.
South Turkey Creek
Turkey Creek is one of the most common names of
creeks in the United States. This is because turkeys were so common
the early days, and so easily shot. Turkeys are still common around
Lake Meredith, and there is an open season on them in the fall,
usually in November.
South Turkey Creek was the home of the Warricks,
and their name is still on the maps put out by the United States
Geological Survey.
Joseph C. Warrick and his wife Margaret
were close friends of Charles and Polly Record, and J.C. had a
freighting business with Charles Record until Mr. Record 's death in
the late 1890's. The 1900 census of Potter County shows the
following: Warrick, J.C. was born November 1832 in Illinois.
Parents born Kentucky. The Warricks are buried in the Record family
cemetery above North Turkey Creek.
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