Duffy's Peak is a small hill or

butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...

near the Salt Fork Brazos River in Garza County, Texas. Duffy's Peak extends less than above the river, yet despite its small size, it served as an important landmark for early surveyors of the region and is said to be named for a member of the original survey team who died and was buried nearby in the late 1870s. Duffy's Peak is located in the rolling plains to the south and east of the

Caprock Escarpment The Caprock Escarpment is a term used in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico to describe the geographical transition point between the level High Plains of the Llano Estacado and the surrounding rolling terrain. In Texas, the escarpment stretch ...

of the

Llano Estacado The Llano Estacado (), sometimes translated into English as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North A ...

. The soils of the area are moderately deep silt loams that support mesquite,

yucca ''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flo ...

cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

, and

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es. The local terrain is eroded, cut by highly intermittent streams such as the Salt Fork Brazos River, and its tributaries, such as McDonald Creek and Lake Creek. These streams typically flow only during periods of heavy rainfall, when flash floods sweep through the area. The erosionally resistant sandstones of the peak's cap have protected underlying soils that have remained intact, while surrounding sediments have eroded away. As a result of this process, Duffy's Peak now stands out as a small but relatively prominent landmark that can be seen from a significant distance. In 1969, the

Texas Historical Commission The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Historic La ...

erected a historical marker for Duffy's Peak along

Texas State Highway 207 State Highway 207 (SH 207) is a state Highway that runs from Post, Texas through the South Plains and Texas Panhandle to the Texas/Oklahoma state line. History The highway was originally designated on July 31, 1934 between Floydada and Ralls. B ...

References

External links

* * {{Garza County, Texas Geology of Texas Landforms of Garza County, Texas Rock formations of Texas

See also

References

External links