PITCHER CREEK. Pitcher Creek rises in central Potter County (at 35°29' N, 101°54' W) and flows southeast for four miles to its mouth on the Canadian River (at 35°28' N, 101°53' W). It was named for a buffalo hunter named Pitcher, who was the first white settler of Potter County and had a small dugout store stocked with merchandise on the creek bank about the time the LX Ranch was started in 1877. Pueblo ruins and an Indian burial ground have been discovered near the site. In 1878 Pitcher left the Canadian Valley to follow the buffalo hunters south. His dugout, which was subsequently used by LX men as a line camp, was just west of the present Canadian River bridge on U.S. Highway 87 between Amarillo and Dumas. The old LX cemetery is on a rise above Pitcher Creek just off the highway. Pitcher Springs is on the creek. The stream rises in flat to rolling terrain with local escarpments where mostly deep, fine, sandy loam soils support hardwood forest, brush, and grasses. It then flows into an area of moderately steep slopes with locally high relief where shallow to moderately deep silt loams support mesquite and grasses. Finally, the creek reaches an area that is flat with local shallow depressions where water-tolerant hardwoods, conifers, and grasses grow in clay and sandy loam soils.
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article."PITCHER CREEK," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rbpae), accessed January 28, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.