Jayton

Jayton, the county seat of Kent County, is on State Highway 70 and Farm roads 1228 and 1083, twenty-three miles west of Aspermont and fourteen miles northeast of Clairemont in the northeastern part of the county. It was originally named Jay Flat and was two miles northwest of the present site. The name honored a Jay family, early ranchers in the area. Daniel M. Jay was granted a post office in the community in 1886. In 1907 the settlement was moved to a location on the new Stamford and Northwestern Railway and renamed Jayton. Within a short time many businesses had opened, and the town was incorporated on February 11, 1910. The first newspaper was the Jayton Herald , founded about 1908 by a man named Morris. An early recreation site was Putoff Canyon, three miles north of Jayton. The canyon, named for a Mr. Putoff, had a large freshwater spring that attracted writers and artists from 1900 to about 1914. One visitor was Zane Grey, who used the setting for his novel The Thundering Herd (1925).