Greene Springs lies at a place occupied by people for centuries, where the first live running water flows into the South Fork of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. The waters collect in large potholes in a sandstone formation and have produced a constant flow since settlers first discovered them. For many centuries before that, Indians also visited the springs, and food grinding holes and petroglyphs on the sandstone creek walls provide evidence of this early use. Since 1964, explorations by the Scurry Chapter, South Plains Archeological Society, have produced artifacts including stone knives and scrapers, beads, potsherds, and arrow points. In the nineteenth century, military units under Capt. R. B. Marcy in 1849 and Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1856 camped at the springs. Somewhat later, buffalo hunters, freighters, and emigrants moving west and north stopped there for water. The springs were named about 1881 for J. I. “Jim” Greene, a horse rancher who moved there at that time, and Greene and his family lived in two dugouts until their first house was built in 1890; remains of the dugouts are still visible in a nearby hill.