Jayton, Texas

Everything Jayton is known for

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Music in Jayton

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Brazos River 42 songs

History of Jayton

How a Surveyor's Map Created Jayton RoadyGoat

The town of Jayton is a monument to transportation engineering. In 1907 the Stamford and Northwestern Railway was pushing through Kent County, and its surveyors had a problem to solve. The county seat, Clairemont, sat near the middle of the county, but the terrain around it was rugged, and steam locomotives struggled with grades. The surveyors found a flatter, cheaper route running along the grain of the land, about fourteen miles to the northeast. So the little settlement of Jay Flat picked itself up, moved to the new tracks, and became Jayton. It incorporated in 1910. What's remarkable is how long the fight took after that. Clairemont held onto the county seat through decades of wrangling, and Jayton didn't finally take it until 1954, forty-seven years after the railroad chose the ground. Then, by the early 1960s, Jayton lost its rail service altogether. Infrastructure doesn't just get built on a landscape. It creates one, and then sometimes it walks away.

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Jayton, TX RoadyGoat

Jayton's history began in the 1880s when it was known as 'Jay Flat', named after a local ranching family. In 1907, the townsite moved to its current location for better rail service and was officially renamed 'Jayton'. The community's first newspaper, the Jayton Herald, started in 1908, and the city incorporated in February 1910. Jayton's economy was initially supported by cotton but was stabilized by oil discovery in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl. In 1954, Jayton won a court battle to become the county seat, and a courthouse was built in 1957. The population has fluctuated but rebounded with a resurgence in the local oil industry.

Jayton, TX RoadyGoat

Jayton might seem like just another dot on the West Texas map, but this little county seat has a story to tell. The pace of life here is definitely slower, a welcome change from the hustle of the city. You can feel it in the air, a clean, high-plains breeze that sweeps across the mesquite flats and up towards the Double Mountain. Speaking of which, local legend has it there's still buried treasure hidden somewhere in those hills – a remnant of a bygone era. But Jayton's real treasure might be the talent it’s produced.

Double Mountain Salt Works

1861

On Indian-infested frontier 125 miles beyond Fort Belknap and outer settlements. Northernmost business in Confederate Texas. Established at great risk, to obtain salt, scarce during Civil War and vitally needed to cure meat, season food, cure hides for leather, feed work horses, army draft mules and cavalry horses. Texas Legislature appropriated funds for the explorations on the Brazos by a civil engineer. Double Mountain spring water proved to be 98% salt, a nearby lake 45%. Reduction of brine was under control of Texas Military Board. Troops guarded the work. (1965)

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Jayton - 2025 Texas 1A Division II state football champion

2025

Jayton defeated Richland Springs 99-54 for the 2025 Texas 1A Division II state football championship.

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Putoff Canyon

1900

(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)

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First National Bank Building

1912

An excellent example of early 20th century Classical Revival style, the First National Bank of Jayton was erected about 1912 by descendants of early Kent County pioneers. Classical features of the edifice, such as the polished granite Ionic columns, bull's eye windows, quoins, and the unusual recessed entry portico, are typical of the favored imagery of stability and order among banks of the period. The domed skylight is a device often employed by the building's architect, Rockwell H. Stuckey (1855-1936). The bank closed in the 1930s; the building continues to serve the community as a financial institution, many of its personnel descendants of bank founders. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998

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Clairemont, TX

1892

Clairemont is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 380 and State Highway 208, fourteen miles southwest of Jayton and forty-three miles east of Post in central Kent County. The site was established as the county seat on land owned by R. L. Rhomberg when Kent County was organized in 1892. The town was named for Claire Becker, a relative of Rhomberg. A post office was established in December 1892 with Loulah Posey as postmistress. A courthouse and jail were constructed from local red sandstone and completed in 1895. By that time the town had several stores, a bank, a newspaper, and a hotel. Although the Stamford and Northwestern Railway had bypassed Clairemont to the east by 1909, the town continued to prosper. Cotton and cattle ranching dominated the economy, and oil later became important. The population, a reported 150 during the 1930s and 1940s, grew to 300 in the 1950s, when the town's five businesses indicated a small-scale oil boom. Clairemont had several newspapers through the years, including the Kent County Sentinel , Kent County News , Clairemont Enterprise , and Western Courier . The lack of an adequate water source, declining cotton prices, and the removal of local oil camps, however, forecast an end to prosperity. After a two-year court battle Jayton became county seat in 1954. Loss of the county offices and consolidation with the Jayton schools in the 1950s caused a rapid decline. When the post office closed in 1970 Clairemont had two businesses and a population of thirty-five. The Clairemont courthouse burned shortly after the records were transferred to Jayton, and only the bottom story was preserved. Although several families lived in the area in the late 1980s, the sole resident of Clairemont was Margie (Ma) Hart. She operated the only remaining store—nicknamed the "Buzzer Den" for an earlier rash of rattlesnakes—which had become a popular local gathering place. In 1990 and 2000 the population of Clairemont was recorded as fifteen.

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Everything Near Jayton

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