Gray County changes shape where the High Plains meet the Red River breaks

Gray County sits where two Panhandle landscapes meet. The west and north belong to the broad High Plains. In the east, center, and southeast, the ground breaks toward the Red River. Sandy loam and black waxy soils both occur across the county. A drive can move from a long prairie horizon toward rolling breaks and creek bottoms without crossing a county line.

The North Fork of the Red River rises in central-western Gray County and runs east. Its valley gathers the lower country that interrupts the open plains. McClellan Creek begins near the edge of the Llano Estacado in the southwest. It travels about 30 miles northeast before joining the North Fork near the eastern county line. Randolph Marcy named the creek in 1852 for George B. McClellan, his second in command on a Red River expedition.

Cottonwood, hackberry, elm, walnut, and mesquite grow along the river bottoms, while native grasses cover much of the open ground. The waterways do more than cross the map. They explain why one Gray County road can read as prairie and another settles into shaded creek country.