Queen of the Texas Panhandle: Amarillo
Seen from the plains of northern Texas, the skyline of Amarillo (population of approximately 200,000) from nearly 12 miles away is dominated by the Chase Tower, tallest building in the city at 31 stories and the tallest building for hundreds of miles around. Again, I have to mention how flat the landscape is. I’ve decided that what bothers me is that this is the first time I’ve been some place where there isn’t a “border” on the horizon. It’s like looking at the Mona Lisa without the frame…
The northwestern Texas plains were settled by cattlemen after the Civil War with ranches of enormous size necessary because the cattle needed to roam to find enough forage. As we have learned elsewhere, the coming of the railroads lead to the founding of Amarillo. Discovery of natural gas in 1918 lead to the development of oil, gas and helium fields in the vicinity. The completion of Highway 66 in the late 1920’s meant that the road from St. Louis to Los Angeles passed through Amarillo and, combined with the new north/south highway system, created a coming together of railroads and highways resulting in the largest transportation hub between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque. A boom ensued and much of downtown Amarillo was constructed during the late 1920’s and early 1930’s along Polk Street. It continues to this day to be a commercial and financial center and has the downtown to reflect that as several banks have built regional centers. However, for what I’m sure was a combination of factors that I have no knowledge of, the glass towers of the late 20th century did not replace the art-deco architecture of the 1930’s but instead were built on parallel streets to the east and the west. Consequently many of the original buildings from that era still stand and are in use.
Just a couple of blocks south of the Polk Street business district is an outstanding example of the religious rivalries that helped shape the development of the Plains. Two huge religious complexes exist within three blocks of each other, each covering nearly a full city block. The Baptists (tan brick) and the Methodists (red brick) were denominations key to the development of Amarillo.
Continuing south on Polk Street past the churches is the Polk Street Historic District, a monument to the wealth of an earlier era. Captains of cattle and industry built their homes along Polk Street and this two block area, all of which is still in private ownership, remains as testimony to their egos and taste.
The mythological presence of Highway 66 does not pass unnoticed in Amarillo. Highway 66 passed through the center of town and a stretch of the historic highway about two miles west of downtown has not really been restored, but rather refurbished, and is now a flourishing strip of restaurants, bars, boutiques and antique stores.
Just to the west of Amarillo is one of the more curious tourist attractions in the area, the Cadillac Ranch.
Cadillac Ranch
Of course, I can’t pass up this homage to my parents because Cadillacs were such an integral part of my childhood. For whatever reason, my dad LOVED Cadillacs and, regardless of our economic circumstances at the time, I can never remember when he did not drive a Cadillac. This held true even after he passed as my mother continued to navigate the streets of Billings in the big “aircraft carrier” until she was no longer able to drive. So, how can I pass this up?
The Cadillac Ranch is a child of the 70’s. The idea came out of a group of artists in San Francisco called the “Ant Farm” who found a sympathetic millionaire who agreed to pay for the installation on a farm west of Amarillo. The idea was to make some sort of statement about modern architecture by burying 10 vintage Cadillacs head down in the ground at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Egypt (I think you had to be around in the 70’s to get how this might happen!), and so they did. The original installation was in a wheat field two miles west of Amarillo but when it began to be surrounded by the expanding city the site was in danger of being overrun with development. In 1997 the cars were dug up and moved about five miles further west of town along the interstate frontage road. There are ten Cadillacs sticking up out of the ground. Visitors bring cans of spray paint and cover the cars with graffiti. The idea is that you bring a can of spray paint and do your own thing (note that a nod to the memory of Augie left its mark!) I was there about 10:30 in the morning on a Sunday and look at what I found. There is no parking lot so you just pull over along the road and there were all kinds of vehicles already there!
There is an entrance “gate” designed to keep the cows off the road and once through you walk across the field to the installation. In the background you can see ten Cadillacs that have been buried in the ground.
The idea is that they are “living” works of art and so you bring cans of spray paint and decorate as much as you like. One of the things that did impress me about this is that I didn’t see any profanity on the cars! There’s no entrance fee and no supervision, it’s just out there in the middle of that field.
It was kind of cold and windy, which made using the spray paint a bit “dicey”, but intrepid tourists journeyed on. All were having a pretty good time and I passed on my half-empty can of paint to a couple of German tourists who were just a bit bemused by all that they were seeing! Just another little piece of Americana…. Now, for a change of pace, let’s go visit the “horsies”!
American Quarter Horse Museum
My very first impression is that people who are in to quarter horses have a lot of money because this is a very impressive complex. I don’t know what the American Quarter Horse Association does that requires a huge three story office building, but they must do something. On the right of Quarter Horse Drive is the national headquarters of the American Quarter Horse Association and on the left is the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum.
Entering the museum almost seems like entering church (and I suppose for some people it is…)
Off this huge hall is a series of small, very elegant galleries featuring paintings, pictures and sculptures of quarter horses as the story of the importance of the quarter horse and the West unfolds. The best part of it (to me) was the incredible collection of bronzes scattered throughout. The horse in the third picture was carved out of single piece of pink crystal.
A large gallery in the back shows aspects of the historic environment around quarter horses: stables, veterinarian’s office, chuck wagon, etc.
The second floor was the Hall of Fame portion and really it was like a mausoleum for the “Who’s Who” of nearly 400 people from the past history of the Quarter Horse Association who have died. Each person had a biographical plaque and picture hung on the wall in back of the case and then in front of them was personal mementos (hats, boots, saddles, etc.) that had belonged to that person. It was all very elegant and reverent and if you are in to quarter horses, I suppose it is special. To a “dufus” like me it just seemed a little creepy…, I mean, their old boots???
I need to clear my mind, so it’s off to the great outdoors!
Palo Duro
Raise your hand if you know that the largest canyon in the United States is the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona and Utah. Ok, everyone raised their hands. Now, raise your hand if you know that the second largest canyon in the United States is the Grand Canyon of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River in Texas. Hmmmm, the number of hands dwindled to a very few awfully quickly! Add me to the list of ignorant people. Since the “Grand Canyon of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River” is quite a mouthful, the canyon is commonly referred to by the name of the Texas state park that contains much of it, Palo Duro. Visualize the land around Amarillo as a table top, flat in all directions. Then note that someone didn’t quite close the table after the last family dinner and the table cloth is caught in the little gap that runs across the table in the middle. That’s Palo Duro. I had no idea that this existed, of course, until I picked up a brochure at the Texas Welcome Center on the border of New Mexico and Texas (Texas has great welcome centers except, like everything else in Texas, it’s all about Texas and nothing about the surrounding states.) Palo Duro is about 20 minutes southeast of Amarillo across the plains. Driving up to the park you have no idea what is in front of you until just before the entry gate when the canyon begins to open up to the east. This picture is taken driving down the road about one mile from the canyon rim.
Shortly after going through the entrance gate a visitor’s center (another park complex built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the depression in 1933) marks the rim of the canyon with views to the east and southeast.
The canyon is 120 miles long and averages 800-900 feet in depth. The Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River runs through the bottom of the canyon. The area has been home to people for thousands of years and the final decisive battle of the Red River Indian Wars was fought here in 1874. By this time the US Army had adopted a brutal but effective policy throughout the West in terms of dealing with Native Americans. The mobility of the tribes made it very difficult to defeat them on the battlefield so the army targeted villages, emphasizing destroying food stores and more importantly, horses, thus effectively forcing tribes to travel on foot with no food. Starvation and disease were more effective weapons of war. On September 24, 1874, a Colonel McKenzie led his troops into the canyon and routed the villagers, capturing 1,400 horses in the process. After keeping a couple of hundred for their use, the army killed over 1,100 horses the next day as well as burning the winter food stores. This forced the Indians back on foot to the Fort Sill Reservation in Oklahoma and ended their traditional way of life forever. A series of narrow switchbacks takes the road down to the floor of the canyon, which is susceptible to flash floods. You will see that the road fords the creek several times and that there are flood markers at the crossings, warning motorists that if the water is more than 6 inches deep you should not try to cross. The river is deceptively small and can swell into a raging torrent in minutes during thunderstorms. The pictures will take you through the bottom of the canyon to the turn-around and then back. Enjoy!
It was a beautiful day to spend in the canyon. Obviously Palo Duro does not compare to some of the awe-inspiring canyons of the Rocky Mountain West but the fact that this scar in the earth exists in the middle of all the “flatness” that is the panhandle area is what creates its’ exceptionalism. All in all, a pleasant surprise 20 minutes from downtown Amarillo.
This wraps up my exploration of Texas. The snows are gone back home in Montana and it’s time to head north. I will retrace my tracks and return via I-25/I-90 to Billings. A map summarizes my wanderings around central/west Texas.
As always, thanks for joining me on my journey, hope to see you again in the fall!
Next up: Another adventure!
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