Donley County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 3,828. It is named for Stockton P. Donley, a frontier lawyer. Its county seat is Clarendon. The legendary cattle baron Charles Goodnight spent his later years in Donley County. It was also the home of historian Harley True Burton, author of A History of the JA Ranch, which Goodnight formerly co-owned. Burton was president of Clarendon College and the mayor of Clarendon from 1955-1963. The JA Ranch is located in the counties of Donley, Hall, Briscoe, and Armstrong. Donley County is also the home of Republican U.S. Representative Mac Thornberry. Aviation historian Randy Acord (1919-2008) was originally from Donley County. The Harold Dow Bugbee Ranch, formerly owned by the Western artist and his second wife, Olive Vandruff Bugbee, also an artist, is located in Donley County. On U.S. Highway 287, which runs through the county, there is a modern rest area with free wi-fi.
Donley County, in the eastern Panhandle just east of the Llano Estacado, is bordered on the north by Gray County, on the west by Armstrong County, on the east by Collingsworth County, and on the south by Briscoe and Hall counties. It was named for Stockton P. Donley, a pioneer lawyer. The center of the county is at 30°00' latitude and 100°50' longitude. Clarendon, the county seat, is near the center of the county, seventy miles southeast of Amarillo. The county occupies 929 square miles of rolling prairie and broken rangeland. Its sandy clay, deep loam, and sandy loam support a variety of native grasses as well as cotton, grain sorghum, wheat, and corn. Oak, cottonwood, elm, mesquite, and other trees can be found near the rivers and streams in the county. The Salt Fork of the Red River rises to the west in Armstrong County, runs eastward across the center of Donley County, and is fed by Beckard, Allen, Carroll, Saddler's, and Whitefish creeks. Several tributaries, including Mulberry, McCullum, Hall, Big Sandy, Brush, West and East Bitter, Oaks, Indian, and Buck creeks, head in Donley County and flow southward toward the South Fork of the Red River. Most of these streams are intermittent, and those that flow year-round do so in a trickle. Elevations in Donley County range from 2,200 to 3,200 feet above sea level, and the average annual rainfall is 20.74 inches. The average minimum temperature is 26° F in January, and the annual average maximum is 96° in July. The growing season averages 206 days per year.
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I found my first cache in Donley county on 09/05/2009.
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