Claude's business district was platted on the railroad's angle while later additions follow the compass, and the reference sample for Lofton clay was dug just south of town. Both shape where your water goes.
Tell us what the water is doing and we’ll call you back to set up a free on-site look.
Claude's business district was platted on the railroad's angle while later additions follow the compass, and the reference sample for Lofton clay was dug just south of town. Both shape where your water goes.
Claude grew up along the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, which built through Armstrong County in 1887. The town started out as Armstrong City and was renamed for Claude Ayers, the engineer who brought the first train through. E. H. Trice platted the business district to match the railroad, which angles southeast to northwest, but later additions by promoters including Samuel H. Graves and Lee Bivins were laid out by the compass.
For drainage, that seam matters. Where an angled block meets a square one you get odd-shaped lots, streets that cross at a skew, and gutters that pass water to each other in ways nobody planned as a whole. If your property is near that transition, we start in the street, not the backyard, and work out how much of the water on your lot began somewhere else.
The NRCS type location for the Lofton series is a cropland field reached by driving 1.5 miles south on State Highway 207 from its intersection with U.S. 287 in Claude, then half a mile west. Lofton soils form on nearly level playa steps and shallow depressions with slopes under 1 percent. They are moderately well drained, have very slow permeability, and are occasionally ponded for very brief periods.
The description also flags vertic properties, meaning the clay shrinks and swells enough to matter, and puts the calcic horizon about 40 to 60 inches down. A shallow dish that collects water over clay that barely lets it through is what you're dealing with when the same corner of the yard stays soft for days. A French drain can collect that water, but it needs fall to an outlet, and on ground this level we often have to build that fall with grading first.
The full range of fixes, chosen for what your lot is actually doing — start with why yards here hold water:
Armstrong County is two landscapes. The Handbook of Texas describes the northern half, where Claude sits about thirty miles east of Amarillo, as generally level, while most of the southern half is taken up by Palo Duro Canyon, with the east end of the state park inside the county. Elevations run from about 2,300 to 3,500 feet, and the county averages just under 20 inches of rain a year.
On the level ground around town, the job is getting water to move at all. On acreage that starts tipping toward the canyon breaks, the job flips to slowing water down so it doesn't cut the drive or undercut a building pad. We size the approach to which side of that line you're on.
Most Claude yards don't need a large system. Often it's a matter of extending downspouts so roof water lands well away from the foundation, reshaping a few feet of grade, and giving one stubborn low spot a drain and an outlet. When a lot has no downhill at all, we'll talk through a sump option honestly, including when it isn't worth it.
Before modern water and sewer lines, Claude residents drew water from a public trough on the courthouse square. Today the question runs the other way: how to get it away from the house. Phone (806) 606-0904 to have your Claude lot assessed on site at no charge and with no obligation, and we'll return your call to set a time and walk it with you. Neighbors to the west can find us on the Amarillo page.
Free on-site drainage assessments in Claude and across the Panhandle. Call or send the form and we’ll set up a time to look.