Texas panhandle why

The western and eastern parts of the Panhandle region is strikingly divided by deep canyons carved by rivers and their tributaries that wind their way through this area. The remarkable canyons were carved by rivers. They are sometimes called "inverterted mountains" since the land is relatively flat until you reach the long and steep canyons in the ground.

Learn about the wildlife and history of this area! The Panhandle goes from gently rolling hills to rough and dissected with canyons.

This area forms the southern end of the Great Plains. Soils vary from coarse sands along streams, to clays and shales. The soil is neutral to slightly alkaline. You will find all the Texas Information you need by visiting one of the 12 Texas Travel Information Centers located at convenient locations throughout Texas. Named after Abilene, Kansas, Abilene, Texas eventually became a big cattle producer.

And in , during Abilene's centennial celebration, oil was discovered. Amarillo Amarillo, along with Fort Worth, are 2 Texas towns that give you the feeling that you are really in Texas, the wild west, cowboy, cowtown type of Texas. Amarillo definitely has a western ambience. Palo Duro State Park is nearby. Andrews Andrews, located in the heart of the Texas Panhandle Plains, gives visitors a wide range of things to do outdoors, including golfing, camping, swimming and fishing.

It is also the location where two of his novels were turned into movies, Last Picture Show in and Texasville in Big Spring Located on the northern edge of the Edwards' Plateau, Big Spring makes good use of its unique natural setting with numerous parks, Moss Lake and a large outdoor amphitheater. The name comes from combining the names of the 2 counties in which Dalhart sits, Dallam and Hartley. Electra This town was named after the daughter of cattle baron W. Electra is the "Pump Jack Capital of Texas".

In fact, during the Great Depression they prospered and the oil counties grew in population. Agriculture, by contrast, had to contend with the economic dislocations of the time as well as an ecological calamity induced by land abuse, unsuitable farming methods, severe drought, and abnormally high winds: the Dust Bowl. Many farmers, especially tenants, were driven from the land. Between and both the number of farms and property values declined sharply. Six agricultural counties lost more than 25 percent of their residents between and ; ten others lost more than 10 percent.

The stark reality of human suffering found expression in poignant images recorded by Farm Security Administration photographers, while the environmental crisis was nowhere made more vivid than in the graphic paintings of Alexandre Hogue.

Immediate relief for depression victims proved to exceed the resources of localities, despite valiant efforts by such leaders as Mayor Ernest O. Thompson of Amarillo. In the long term, two absolute necessities emerged: stabilization of the agricultural economy and healing of the land. Roosevelt, who carried all twenty-six counties with 87 percent of the popular vote.

Four years later, Roosevelt gleaned 96 percent of the Panhandle vote. Through various New Deal agencies, federal aid came in a variety of projects ranging from multiple agricultural programs to construction of Palo Duro Canyon State Scenic Park , to the building of curbs, streets, and gutters in towns, to documenting and recording regional history, to producing public art.

Of enormous advantage to the region was its United States representative, Marvin Jones , who chaired the House Agriculture Committee beginning in and heavily influenced the New Deal's agricultural legislation.

Doubtless through Jones's influence, but also through dire need, the Panhandle was among the first areas in the nation to receive New Deal aid and became something of a proving ground for its programs. Of all programs affecting the Panhandle, and especially rural life, few, if any, could match the depth and permanence of the Rural Electrification Act, which brought electric power first to the rural Panhandle in Deaf Smith County in As the "Dirty Thirties" waned and the effects of the Great Depression subsided, Panhandle citizens' attention turned outward toward Europe and Asia.

Tangible portents of a new, unpleasant world became evident on November 25, , when units of the Texas National Guard mobilized at Amarillo. Though guard personnel served world-wide, the Second Battalion, formed from the st Field Artillery under Col. Blutcher S. Tharp of Amarillo, was immortalized as the Lost Battalion of Java. Two Panhandle men, John C. Roan , earned the Medal of Honor, while former representative Jones served throughout the war as war food administrator.

Because of the large number of days per year suitable for flying, the Army Air Corps placed training fields at Dalhart, Pampa, and Amarillo. Only the Amarillo installation remained after the war.

McLean and Hereford hosted German and Italian prisoners of war. The demands of global war combined with ample rainfall sent Panhandle wheat and beef production soaring; cotton culture production also significantly increased, though less dramatically.

Largely because of the leadership of Ernest O. Thompson in his position on the Railroad Commission , the Panhandle oil and gas fields had been developed and were poised to fuel and lubricate the machines of war.

In March the Exell Helium Plant in Moore County began extracting helium from natural gas to provide lifting power for the blimps that escorted transoceanic convoys; also, completely without the knowledge of Exell personnel, the plant provided helium for the Manhattan Project.

The number of peaceful applications of Helium later increased, although it was Cold War demands for nuclear weaponry that kept the Exell Plant in operation after the armistice. The post-World War II years sustained the prosperity stimulated by the war, although it still rested mainly upon its traditional foundations, agriculture and petroleum. The Korean War bolstered the demand for both and introduced a pivotal decade in regional history, the s.

In the five years following , Amarillo recorded less rainfall than in any comparable period of the s, and emerging dust clouds evoked fears of another Dust Bowl.

The happy fact that the worst did not happen may be attributed to expanding irrigation and the soil-conservation practices and technologies learned twenty years earlier. During the s as the number of farms decreased, the size of farms increased. The average of almost 1, acres by reflected advanced mechanization and especially widespread irrigation, the number of irrigation wells having increased from a mere forty-one in to more than in Recurring drought in the fifties encouraged irrigation all over the High Plains, but especially north of the Canadian River, where the Ogallala Aquifer had previously been considered too deep for feasible irrigation.

Technology changed that, however, and over the High Plains the number of wells increased from 14, in to 27, in Irrigated acreage expanded from 1. The irrigation boom peaked in the middle s, subsided, and stabilized about It assured a measure of agricultural prosperity and stimulated a pervasive agribusiness that remains a dominant force in the regional economy-especially in cattle feeding.

An explosion of feedlots in northwestern Texas came about through the chance presence of Paul Engler, a Nebraska cattle buyer, in Hereford in Engler noticed an abundance of components: space, favorable climate, cattle, and massive irrigated hybrid sorghum culture.

Far-sighted bankers, especially Henry Sears of Hereford, provided capital for the infant industry, which quickly grew into a obstreperously youthful industry. The early s brought a sobering collapse and eventual reordering into a more sound, scientifically managed enterprise. The Atomic Energy Commission claimed the Pantex plant in and added manufacture of nuclear warheads to the installation's former functions.

Operated by private contractors under the Department of Energy, Pantex became the nation's sole assembly plant for nuclear warheads in As early as , visionary individuals considered harnessing Canadian River water for domestic and industrial use. Austin A. Meredith made a virtual life's work of promoting an impoundment, and his efforts and those of many others led to the formation of the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority in Eleven Panhandle and South Plains cities joined the authority, secured federal financing, and constructed Sanford Dam.

The resulting Lake Meredith impounds up to , acre-feet of water. Excessive salinization plagues Lake Meredith waters, however, and requires remedial treatment. The s also featured a remarkably rapid reversal in the traditional Democratic politics of Panhandle voters who, after overwhelmingly supporting Franklin Roosevelt through four elections, gave President Harry Truman a decisive victory in and helped Democratic senator Lyndon B.

Johnson defeat his Republican opponent. Four years later Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won twenty-four Panhandle counties, although he took only sixteen in