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Pampa, Texas

Everything Pampa is known for

5 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Pampa. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

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Music in Pampa

Songs About Pampa

The President Song
Cross Canadian Ragweed
55%
"The capital's in Pampa, Texas"
Merry Christmas from Texas, y’all
Tracy Byrd
51%
"From South Padre up to Pampa"
Dusty Old Dust (So Long It’s Been Good to Know Yuh)
Woody Guthrie
22%
"In the month called April, county called Gray"
Texas Oil Field
Woody Guthrie
1%
"and Pampa"
Woody Guthrie
Jimmy LaFave
"Woody Guthrie"

Artists From Pampa

S
Stealing Handshakes
indie

Rivers & Roads in Song near Pampa

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Pampa.

Highway I 40 21 songs Canadian River 7 songs U.S. Route 66 19 songs

Musical Heritage

Coney Island Cafe RoadyGoat

1933

At 114 West Foster Avenue in Pampa, the Coney Island Cafe has been serving since 1933 — opened by a Greek immigrant named Bill Coronis, and still built around a yellow Formica counter lined with red swivel stools. A chili dog will run you a buck seventy-five. But that counter has a real claim to fame: it was Woody Guthrie's favorite place to eat in all of Pampa. Same yellow Formica. Same red stools. And somewhere along it, one of the great American songwriters used to sit down for lunch. Ninety years on, they'll still pour you a coffee and slide you a chili dog in a room Woody Guthrie loved.

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Pampa's Tribute to Woody Guthrie and the 'This Land Is Your Land' sculpture RoadyGoat

Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land," and Pampa, Texas, decided that song deserved a monument. Back in nineteen ninety-two, when the city leaders wouldn't back a tribute, two women — Thelma Bray and Glenna Lea Miller — went and built one anyway, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Guthrie's death. Governor Ann Richards proclaimed a Woody Guthrie Day across Texas. His own sister came and spoke, and a hundred Pampa schoolkids stood up and sang his songs. And a welder named Rusty Neef took carbon steel and forged the actual notes of "This Land Is Your Land" into a sculpture — a hundred and forty-two feet of melody laid out in East Coronado Park. It used to glow at night off the highway, till vandals smashed the floodlights. The song's still out there. It never needed the lights.

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Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center RoadyGoat

2003

Woody Guthrie learned to play guitar in Pampa, Texas — up in the Panhandle — while he was working the soda fountain at the Harris Drug Store. That building's still standing at 320 South Cuyler Street, and it's a museum now: the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center. Funny thing is, the building itself is about the only Guthrie artifact in it. The real treasures are on loan from his daughter Nora — photos, letters, lyrics, paintings. A woman named Thelma Bray got the museum open to the public back in 2003, with Pete Seeger playing a benefit concert to fund the restoration. Thelma just turned a hundred years old this past June. And every Friday night, folks still bring their instruments down and pick together in the room where Woody figured it out.

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Woody Guthrie's years in Pampa RoadyGoat

Before he was the voice of the Dust Bowl, Woody Guthrie was a teenager in a Panhandle oil town. His father called him to Pampa at seventeen to help run a cot house for roughnecks on Cuyler Street. He dropped out of high school and taught himself at the public library — twelve books at a time. He claimed a guitar somebody had abandoned in the storeroom of Harris Drug, and his uncle Jeff, a fiddle-playing deputy, showed him the chords. He wrote his first songs here and married a local girl. Then, April fourteenth, 1935, the sky went black with topsoil. In the exodus that followed, Guthrie wrote "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You," and lit out for California. His records would go on to inspire a whole folk revival — Seeger, Dylan, all of them — a couple of decades down the road.

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Woody Guthrie's Panhandle Years RoadyGoat

1929

U.S. Highway Sixty across the Texas Panhandle is the Woody Guthrie Memorial Highway, named for the Oklahoma born folk singer who spent seven years in the Panhandle. Oil was discovered around Pampa in nineteen twenty five, and the Guthrie family moved to the boomtown in nineteen twenty nine, when Woody was seventeen. He worked the soda fountain at the Harris drugstore, and in his autobiography he said he found his first guitar in the back room. His Uncle Jeff taught him to play. He quit school in his senior year, did odd jobs like sign painting, and played local clubs and radio stations for tips. In nineteen thirty three he married Mary Jennings, a Pampa girl and the sister of a bandmate. Then the fields of the Panhandle slipped into the Dust Bowl, and Guthrie left for California. For a long time, most folks around Pampa did not care to mention him. A Pampa grandmother changed that after reading a Guthrie biography. Her nonprofit, Pampa's Tribute to Woody Guthrie, bought the old drugstore building and turned it into the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center, and her group got Highway Sixty across the Panhandle designated in his name. Guthrie died in nineteen sixty seven.

RoadyGoat → · 7.4 mi away

History of Pampa

Pampa, TX RoadyGoat

On June 8, 1995, Pampa experienced a violent tornado that hit the industrial section on the west side of the city. The tornado destroyed or damaged about 250 businesses and homes, resulting in $30 million in damage. It was the costliest and most destructive tornado on record for Pampa, with a three-mile-long path and 200 yards wide, and was rated an F4 on the Fujita scale at its peak.

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Pampa, TX RoadyGoat

Pampa sits high on the plains, a place where you can almost taste the bluestem grass on the wind. It's a town built on the land and what comes out of it – agriculture, of course, and the oil that boomed here in the '20s. But beyond the economics, Pampa’s produced some true originals.

Pampa, TX RoadyGoat

Pampa's history is marked by significant events that shaped the city. In 1888, the Santa Fe Railroad was constructed through the area, leading to the establishment of a rail station and telegraph office. The town, initially called Glasgow and then Sutton, was eventually named Pampa after the pampas grasslands of South America. Pampa became a center for agriculture, and its prosperity surged with the discovery of gas and oil in the Texas Panhandle in 1916. The Gray County seat was moved from Lefors to Pampa in 1928. During World War II, the Army Air Forces Training Command operated the Pampa Army Air Field from 1942 to 1945. A devastating tornado in 1995 caused $30 million in damage, making it the costliest and most destructive tornado on record for Pampa.

Black Sunday Dust Storm

1935

Massive dust storm that rolled across the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma on April 14, 1935, blotting out the sun and depositing more dirt than was excavated to build the Panama Canal.

Vittorio Emanuel von Brunow, M. D.

1903

(October 27, 1862 - May 7, 1941) Born in North Carolina, Vittorio von Brunow moved to east Prussia with his family in 1864 and as a young man was educated in Vienna and Warsaw. He returned to the United States in 1892 to pursue his interests in research and technology, arriving in Texas in 1900 and in Pampa three years later. Von Brunow erected a frame house on this site from which he operated a drugstore and post and telephone offices in addition to his medical practice. As the area's first doctor, he often traveled many miles over dirt roads to care for his patients. Von Brunow also was active in community affairs and civic organizations for many years. (1998)

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Woody Guthrie

1929

American folk musician Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912-1967) moved to Pampa from his native Oklahoma at age 17. Here he learned to play the guitar and joined with other musicians to perform for area events. Guthrie briefly attended Pampa High School and, from 1930 until 1935, worked as a soda jerk at this site, home of the former Harris Drug Store. He also spent much time reading books in the Pampa city library, preparing him for his most productive years as a poet-lyricist and folk balladeer during the 1940s and early 1950s. He left Pampa for California in 1937 and in 1940 went to New York City, where he was recognized for his writings and performances. He died there in 1967. 						(2002)

Historical Marker →

German Sisters

1874

The four German (Germain[e]) sisters, Indian Captives , were the daughters of John and Lydia (Cox) German, who in the 1850s established a farm near Morganton, Fannin County, Georgia. They were Catherine E. (b. March 21, 1857), Sophia L. (b. August 11, 1862), Julia Arminda (b. March 23, 1867), and Nancy Adelaide (Addie, b. April 26, 1869). During the Civil War German fought for the Confederacy and was taken prisoner. He returned in 1865 to find his farm devastated and decided to make a new life for his family, which grew to seven children. Encouraged by a letter from a friend, the family set out for Colorado on April 10, 1870. Eventually they made it to Howell County, Missouri, where they stayed among relatives for over two years before moving on. In Elgin County, Kansas, German and his eighteen-year-old son, Stephen, plowed fields for pay on the Osage Indian Reservation for ten months before moving on. In August 1874 the family reached Ellis City, where they were advised to take the stage route up the Smoky Hill River to Fort Wallace, since water was more readily available that way. On September 10 the Germans camped on the trail a day's journey from the fort. The next morning as they were breaking camp they were attacked by a war party of Cheyennes led by Chief Medicine Water. John and Lydia German, their son Stephen, and daughters Rebecca Jane and Joanna were killed and scalped. The Indians then took any goods they deemed usable and set the wagon afire. Captured and eventually taken into the Texas Panhandle were Catherine, age seventeen; Sophia, twelve; Julia, seven; and Addie, five. The Germans were victims of the Cheyennes' retaliation for their losses at the second battle of Adobe Walls on June 27. After a scouting party from Fort Wallace came upon the scene of the massacre a few days later, the military campaigns against hostile Indians in the Panhandle were intensified. In the meantime, the German girls were subjected to exposure, malnutrition, and occasional maltreatment as their captors traveled southward. Catherine, in particular, recalled instances of gang rape by young "dog soldiers" and indignities at the hands of Cheyenne women, particularly Medicine Water's obnoxious wife, Mochi (Buffalo Calf Woman). Eventually Julia and Addie were traded to Grey Beard 's band, who for the most part neglected them. Grey Beard steered his following down the east side of the Llano Estacado , while Medicine Water joined with other groups and moved down the west side, probably crossing at several points into eastern New Mexico. By November 1874 Grey Beard had set up camp north of McClellan Creek, about ten miles south of the site of present-day Pampa. On the morning of November 8, Lt. Frank D. Baldwin 's column charged the Indian encampment. So complete was the surprise that the Cheyennes abandoned the village and left most of their property intact. Riding through the deserted camp, William (Billy) Dixon and other army scouts noticed movement in a pile of buffalo hides; they were astonished to find Julia and Addie German, both emaciated and near starvation. Dixon later recalled how hardened scouts and soldiers turned aside to hide their emotions as the little girls sobbed out their story. At the main supply camp on the Washita River Col. Nelson A. Miles placed Julia and Addie in the care of an army surgeon, who took them to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In January Miles and Col. Thomas H. Neill sent out friendly Kiowas as messengers to find the Cheyennes and induce them to surrender. The Kiowas located the camp of Stone Calf on a tributary of the Pecos River near the New Mexico border. When Stone Calf, who was bringing his people back from exile in Mexico, was told that peace was dependent upon the safety of Catherine and Sophia German, he had them moved into a lodge next to his own. They were released in March, after Stone Calf, Grey Beard, Red Moon, and other chiefs brought in their bands to surrender at Brinton Darlington's agency. T

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Panhandle Field

1918

Panhandle field is a giant gas and oil producing area that draws production from several horizons of Pennsylvanian and Permian age granite wash and dolomite, covering 200,000 surface acres in Hartley, Potter, Moore, Hutchinson, Carson, Gray, Wheeler, and Collingsworth counties of the Panhandle . The field was classified as one reservoir by the Railroad Commission of Texas until January 1, 1940, when cumulative production totaled 346.8 million barrels of oil. At that time oil production from the reservoir was separated into fields named Panhandle Carson County, Panhandle Gray County, Panhandle Hutchinson County, and Panhandle Wheeler County. The primary recovery of oil from the reservoir was driven by solution gas and gas-cap expansion and reservoir pressure has been maintained by gas and water injection. Secondary recovery attempts in the oilfield were begun with water flooding in 1946, but results were mixed. The vast gas reservoir, known as Panhandle Hugoton field, flanks the areas of oil production and is centered around the city of Pampa in Gray County. By 1994 the oilfields of the Panhandle district had yielded a cumulative total of nearly 1.42 billion barrels of oil and between 1973 and 1993 dry gas production was 8.1 trillion cubic feet. Oil was first found in the Osborne area of Wheeler County in 1910. Called Panhandle Osborne field, the area gave up nearly 6 million barrels of oil before the Railroad Commission consolidated it with Panhandle Wheeler field on May 1, 1989. However, it was in Potter County, three counties to the west, that exploration resulted in the discovery of the nation's largest natural gas reserve. In 1916 Amarillo Oil Company, a locally funded venture, hired Charles N. Gould to study the Amarillo fold for petroleum exploration. Gould was a University of Oklahoma geology professor who had first mapped the area for a water study beginning in 1904. The area that Gould and his associate, Robert S. Dewey, studied and mapped for Amarillo Oil was located on either side of the Canadian River on two large ranches in northern Potter County, belonging to R. B. Masterson north of the river and to Lee Bivins south of it. When Gould and Dewey completed the study, they mapped a prominent structure that was ten to fifteen miles in diameter and exhibited 400 feet of uplift. Gould and Dewey named the structure John Ray dome for the nearby butte. Amarillo Oil was so impressed with the map and the salient anticline that the company leased 64,000 acres and spudded the No. 1 Masterson on John Ray dome in Masterson's high prairie, 225 miles from known production. The well was completed on December 9, 1918 to a total depth of 2,269 feet where 10 million cubic feet of gas were produced daily. In 1919 three additional wells were completed in the Masterson high prairie, and all four were tested on an open-flow gauge in March 1920, where they yielded 160 million cubic feet of gas a day. When other strong wells were brought in on locations several miles apart in the ever-widening field, it was obvious that the subsurface of the Panhandle held enormous natural gas reserves. Engineers have estimated that those reserves numbered 15 to 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at discovery. This major gas discovery in a then-isolated section of the state captured the interest of major and independent oil companies, although they questioned the economic significance of even a giant field that had no market for production and no transportation system. Oilmen doubted that the reservoir would produce crude, the only form of hydrocarbons they sought. However, explorationists could neither deny nor ignore the possibilities of the discovery and they began leasing large blocks. On May 5, 1921 the Gulf Production Company No. 2 S. B. Burnett in Carson County reached a total depth of 3,052 feet and gave up 190 barrels of oil a day. The well was shut in after pumping 1,000 barrels of oil because there was no way to store it or move it to refiner

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Brown, Montague Kingsmill

1903

Montague Kingsmill Brown, cattleman, entrepreneur, and civic leader in Pampa, was born on May 22, 1878, near London, England. His father was a broker with the London Stock Exchange and, as Brown later quipped, "went broker, by Jove!" After leaving school at the age of fifteen, Brown worked in a lumber company and bank, starting at two dollars a week. When the Boer War broke out in 1899 he enlisted in the British army and saw action in South Africa, where he worked his way up from trooper to regimental sergeant major. After the war he considered returning to Africa to make his fortune. However, in 1902 Brown's uncle Andrew Kingsmill, manager of Lord Rosebery's London bank, was sent by his employer to investigate the property of the White Deer Lands ( see FRANCKLYN LAND AND CATTLE COMPANY ) in the Panhandle of Texas. On returning to England, Kingsmill persuaded his nephew to go to Texas and work for the syndicate. Accordingly, Brown arrived on April 27, 1903, at the boxcar depot and the two or three stores that composed the new rail town of Pampa. He entered the employ of the White Deer Lands, then managed by George Tyng . When Timothy Dwight Hobart succeeded Tyng as manager in 1903, Brown ably assisted him in promoting and surveying the lands being sold to small ranchers and farmers. In all, Brown helped dispose of some 600,000 acres. Over the years he successfully branched out into cattle raising, railroads, and later into oil. Impressed with the Panhandle environment, he obtained his naturalization papers in 1914 and in 1922 married Josye Barnes, a native of Oklahoma. After Hobart resigned as manager of the White Deer Lands in 1924, Brown and C. V. P. Buckler were appointed comanagers of the properties. Brown retired from that position in 1935 but continued to build up his fortune through investments in various businesses. In 1957, when the White Deer Corporation was liquidated, Brown bought the remaining properties with a $70,000 bid. As a civic leader he devoted his efforts to promoting Pampa as a townsite. He played the drums in Alex Schneider's band, since that was "the only instrument he could play and talk at the same time." He preached the town's first funeral rites, using his Anglican prayer book, and was mayor of Pampa when the town became the Gray county seat in 1928. Brown also served on the school board for sixteen years, was president of the Rotary Club, helped organize the country club, and was a senior warden of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. In addition, he was a director of Pampa's First National Bank and Southwestern Investment Company and was president of the Security Federal Savings and Loan Association. Brown was a Scottish Rite Mason, generously supported both the Boy and Girl Scouts, and also chaired the Gray County selective service board for six years. Along with C. P. Buckler and Walter Purviance, he was appointed a trustee for the Lovett Estate. In 1952 Brown served as program chairman for the county's fiftieth anniversary celebration. In addition, he was a vice president of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society and with Buckler was instrumental in donating the White Deer Land Company records to the Panhandle-Plains Museum in Canyon. Among his many honors, Brown was named man of the year by the Pampa Chamber of Commerce in 1958 and adult leader of the year by the city's Key Club in 1963. In January 1964 he was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. He sponsored the M. K. Brown Range Life series of historical books, published by the University of Texas Press . Brown was robust and was said to have "a ready laugh and a story to tell." He contributed much of his fortune to Pampa's businesses and cultural advancements and helped send many young people through college. On September 10, 1964, he died from injuries received in a car collision in Pampa. Portions of his huge bequest were used to construct the M. K. Brown Memorial Civic Auditorium and to renovat

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Things to Do in Pampa

quirky 24.4 mi away
Leaning Tower of Texas (Britten)

A 75-foot water tower tilted on purpose so motorists think it's about to topple — a 1980s stunt that lured Route 66 drivers into Ralph Britten's truck stop.…
historical
Pampa, Texas (c. 1936)
quirky 0.9 mi away
Woody Guthrie Music Fence

A 142-foot-long carbon-steel fence forged in 1992 by welder Rusty Neef spells out the opening notes of Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land and the notes are…

Everything Near Pampa

84 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Pampa, TX

    On June 8, 1995, Pampa experienced a violent tornado that hit the industrial section on the west side of the city. The tornado destroyed or damaged about 250 businesses and homes, resulting in $30 million in damage. It…

  • Black Sunday Dust Storm · Historical Marker

    Massive dust storm that rolled across the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma on April 14, 1935, blotting out the sun and depositing more dirt than was excavated to build the Panama Canal.

  • Coney Island Cafe

    At 114 West Foster Avenue in Pampa, the Coney Island Cafe has been serving since 1933 — opened by a Greek immigrant named Bill Coronis, and still built around a yellow Formica counter lined with red swivel stools. A…

  • Pampa's Tribute to Woody Guthrie and the 'This Land Is Your Land' sculpture

    Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land," and Pampa, Texas, decided that song deserved a monument. Back in nineteen ninety-two, when the city leaders wouldn't back a tribute, two women — Thelma Bray and Glenna Lea…

  • Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center

    Woody Guthrie learned to play guitar in Pampa, Texas — up in the Panhandle — while he was working the soda fountain at the Harris Drug Store. That building's still standing at 320 South Cuyler Street, and it's a museum…

  • Woody Guthrie's years in Pampa

    Before he was the voice of the Dust Bowl, Woody Guthrie was a teenager in a Panhandle oil town. His father called him to Pampa at seventeen to help run a cot house for roughnecks on Cuyler Street. He dropped out of high…

  • Storm chasers and tornado tourism

    Right here near Pampa, Texas, on June 8, 1995, an F4 tornado tore through town in front of dozens of cameras. Researchers Alan Moller and Charles Doswell shot photos, and Sheriff Randy Stubblefield's video became…

  • Pampa, Texas (c. 1936) · Things to Do
  • Pampa Post Office Building · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Pampa Post Office, built in the mid-1930s by the Works Progress Administration. This building sprang up to serve a booming population after oil was discovered nearby in 1926. Look for its Spanish…

  • First Methodist Church of Pampa · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pampa, where the First Methodist Church got its start in 1906. It was the very first denomination organized in town. They built their first one-room church with a steeple in 1908, and this current…

  • Vittorio Emanuel von Brunow, M. D. · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    (October 27, 1862 - May 7, 1941) Born in North Carolina, Vittorio von Brunow moved to east Prussia with his family in 1864 and as a young man was educated in Vienna and Warsaw. He returned to the United States in 1892…

  • Pioneer Cottage · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Pioneer Cottage, built in 1903 by Wiley and Katie Vincent. This two-room cabin survived a massive prairie fire in 1907 by just 600 yards! Later, it was owned by Pampa mayor E.S. Carr and…

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  • Woody Guthrie and the Black Duster · 0.2 mi

    In the 1930s, Pampa was home to a young, struggling sign-painter and musician named Woody Guthrie. He lived here during the worst years of the Dust Bowl, an experience that would forge his identity as America's greatest…

  • The Tornado of 1995 · 0.2 mi

    On the afternoon of June 8, 1995, the skies over Pampa turned violent. A supercell dropped a massive F4 tornado that touched down about 4:27 and ground its way in from the southwest, through the industrial district and…

  • The Science of Carbon Black · 0.2 mi

    As you travel around Pampa, you might notice the large industrial complex of the Cabot Corporation. For decades, this plant has been a leader in a specific and vital field of chemical engineering: the production of…

  • Woody Guthrie · 0.2 mi

    You're driving through Pampa, the hometown of American folk music legend Woody Guthrie. He arrived here from Oklahoma at age 17, learned guitar, and even worked as a soda jerk right at this spot, the former Harris Drug…

  • Gray, Peter W. · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pampa, and right here is a marker for Peter W. Gray, a man who wore many hats for the Confederacy. Born in Virginia, he came to Texas in 1838 and became a major player in Republic and Confederate…

  • The Pampa Army Airfield · 0.2 mi

    About twelve miles east of Pampa, the grid of old runways and roads marks the site of the Pampa Army Air Field. During the Second World War this quiet patch of prairie became an advanced flying school - they called it…

  • Pampa · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Pampa, a town that owes its start to the railroad and a telegraph wire. Back in 1888, a simple telegraph station popped up along the Southern Kansas Railroad. It was first called Glasgow, then…

  • Pampa City Hall · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pampa, and right here is the City Hall, a grand old building that tells a story of Texas prosperity. It was built on the back of the great Texas Panhandle Oil Boom in the late 1920s and early…

  • Gray County Courthouse · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pampa, and to your right stands the Gray County Courthouse. It's a beautiful example of Beaux Arts architecture, a style you'd expect for a grand public building. But this courthouse has a bit of…

  • Combs-Worley Building · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Pampa, and to your right, you're passing the Combs-Worley Building. Erected in 1931, this structure was designed by Amarillo architects W. R. Kaufman & Son and housed the offices for the…

  • Gray County 50th Year Anniversary · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Pampa, and today we're celebrating a half-century milestone. Look out for the marker commemorating Gray County's 50th-anniversary. From 1902 to 1952, this area saw fifty years of progress, all thanks…

  • Pampa High School (Zach Thomas) · 0.3 mi

    Pampa High School in the Texas Panhandle is where Zach Thomas was a two-way, all-state fullback and middle linebacker. He starred at Texas Tech, then — despite being only a fifth-round pick — became a seven-time Pro…

  • German Sisters · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The four German (Germain[e]) sisters, Indian Captives , were the daughters of John and Lydia (Cox) German, who in the 1850s established a farm near Morganton, Fannin County, Georgia. They were Catherine E. (b. March 21,…

  • Panhandle Field · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Panhandle field is a giant gas and oil producing area that draws production from several horizons of Pennsylvanian and Permian age granite wash and dolomite, covering 200,000 surface acres in Hartley, Potter, Moore,…

  • Brown, Montague Kingsmill · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Montague Kingsmill Brown, cattleman, entrepreneur, and civic leader in Pampa, was born on May 22, 1878, near London, England. His father was a broker with the London Stock Exchange and, as Brown later quipped, "went…

  • Francklyn Land and Cattle Company · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once a massive cattle empire. Back in 1881, the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company, a British syndicate, bought over 631,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle and Greer County. Their manager,…

  • Gray County · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Gray County, a place that transformed from quiet ranchland to an oil boomtown almost overnight. For decades, this was cattle country, dominated by huge ranches like the Diamond F. But in 1926,…

  • Pampa Army Air Field · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Gray County, not far from Pampa, where during World War II, the skies were filled with training aircraft. This was the Pampa Army Air Field, known as the 'Eagles' Nest of the High Plains.'…

  • Schneider, Alexander · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, maybe near Pampa, and you're listening to the sounds of history. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1887</say-as>, Alexander Schneider, a Swiss immigrant…

  • Tyng, George · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, a region George Tyng helped shape. Born in Massachusetts, Tyng had already lived a life of business in Cuba, South America, and California before heading to Arizona. He served…

  • Pampa, TX · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Pampa, a town born from a railway station and a bit of wanderlust. Back in 1887, this spot was just land owned by a cattle company. But when the Southern Kansas Railway needed a stop, it became…

  • Hunter, Cecil · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Pampa, Texas, a place that was once home to a unique radio star known as "Stuttering Sam." Born Cecil Hunter, he developed an amazing talent for imitating farm animals as a kid. After some early…

  • Lovett, Henry Bell · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Gray County, Texas, a place that became home to Henry Bell Lovett, a man who lived a true Texas life. He started out on the frontier, hunting buffalo in the 1870s, then cutting wood…

  • Hobart, Timothy Dwight · 0.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Timothy Dwight Hobart, Panhandle businessman and civic leader, was born in Berlin, Vermont, on October 6, 1855. He was superintendent of the Berlin schools for several years before he moved to Texas in 1882 to work for…

  • Woody Guthrie Music Fence · 0.9 mi · Things to Do

    A 142-foot-long carbon-steel fence forged in 1992 by welder Rusty Neef spells out the opening notes of Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land and the notes are…

  • Fairview Cemetery · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Fairview Cemetery, established back in 1904. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004.

  • Gray County · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Gray County, formed way back in 1876 from parts of Young and Bexar Territories. It's named for Peter W. Gray, a significant figure who served in the first Texas Legislature and the Confederate…

  • Wayside Community · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the old Wayside community area, settled back in 1876. The community really came together around its little red schoolhouse, built in 1914. It wasn't just for classes; it hosted elections and…

  • Red River Expedition of 1852 · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, near Pampa. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1852</say-as>, Captain Randolph Marcy and a young George B. McClellan led an expedition right through here. Their…

  • Woody Guthrie's Panhandle Years · 7.4 mi

    U.S. Highway Sixty across the Texas Panhandle is the Woody Guthrie Memorial Highway, named for the Oklahoma born folk singer who spent seven years in the Panhandle. Oil was discovered around Pampa in nineteen twenty…

  • Santa Fe Expedition Departure · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    In June 1841, President Mirabeau Lamar of the Republic of Texas launched one of the most disastrous military expeditions in North American history. He sent 321 soldiers and merchants northwest across the Panhandle to…

  • Rescue of Two White Girls by Lt. Frank Baldwin · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, near Pampa. Look to the southwest, about ten miles back. It was here, on November 8th, 1874, that Lieutenant Frank Baldwin and his troops attacked a large Cheyenne encampment.…

  • Big Springs · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Lefors, and just ahead is a spot that's been a vital oasis for centuries. These historic Big Springs were a crucial watering hole for Native Americans and later, for U.S. military expeditions. In…

  • Thut, Henry · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Lefors, a town that owes its start to a Swiss immigrant named Henry Thut. He arrived in the Texas Panhandle in 1884, working for the Diamond F Ranch. Thut built the first permanent home right here…

  • Lefors, TX · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Lefors, a town that owes its existence to ranching and a bit of Panhandle grit. It all started back in 1882 when Travis Leach built the first homestead here, a log cabin that doubled as a…

  • The Day the Sky Turned on Lefors · 11.1 mi

    Late on the night of March 26, 1975, the people of Lefors experienced the terrifying power of a Texas storm. Near midnight, a supercell that had tracked northeast across the Panhandle dropped a violent tornado that tore…

  • Lefors, TX · 11.1 mi

    On April 7-8, 1938, an early spring snowstorm stranded about 100 people in around 55 automobiles on the road between Pampa and Lefors. The storm brought between 10 and 12 inches of snow, with 50-mile-an-hour winds…

  • Making Black Gold from the Air · 11.1 mi

    The oil boom brought drilling, but it also brought a massive chemical engineering enterprise to Lefors: carbon black plants. What is carbon black? It's a powder of pure, fine carbon, and in the early 20th century, it…

  • Site of Pampa Army Air Force Base · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Pampa Army Air Force Base, a vital training ground during World War II. Back in the early 1940s, Pampa's mayor and Chamber of Commerce convinced the Army this flat terrain was perfect…

  • When the Sky Rained Soot · 12.1 mi

    Imagine a time when everything here was covered in a fine layer of black dust. For decades, the area around Skellytown was a hub for carbon black production. These industrial plants burned immense amounts of natural gas…

  • The Chemistry of a Stronger Tire · 12.1 mi

    The carbon black plants that once operated near Skellytown were basically massive chemical reactors. Their purpose was to turn natural gas into a highly valuable industrial material through a process of incomplete…

  • The Perfectly Planned Town · 12.1 mi

    The neat grid of streets in Skellytown is a corporate plat, not an accident. In 1926 the Skelly Oil Company bought land here from rancher Henry Schafer, on top of the Roxana pool, and laid out a townsite deliberately…

  • Skellytown, TX · 12.1 mi

    In 1926, Skelly Oil Company purchased a 320-acre lease from local rancher Henry Schafer, leading to the birth of Skellytown. Schafer named the town in honor of the company's founder, William Grove Skelly. The town…

  • Skellytown, TX · 12.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Skellytown, a place born from oil! Back in 1926, the Skelly Oil Company found rich fields here. Rancher Henry Schafer platted this townsite, naming it after the company's founder. Initially, it…

  • Baldwin, Francis Leonard Dwight · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the Texas Panhandle, a land of harsh beauty and even harsher conflict. Right here, back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1874</say-as>, a U.S. Army officer named Frank D.…

  • Lake McClellan · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Gray County, not far from Pampa, near where a pivotal moment in Texas frontier history unfolded. On November 8, 1874, right near this spot, Lt. Francis Baldwin and his cavalry attacked Chief Grey…

  • Back, TX · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Back, originally Pumpkin Ridge, is a rural community at the junction of State Highway 273 and Farm Road 1321, in eastern Gray County. The area was first settled by farmers in the late 1890s. In October 1899 a post…

  • Kings Mill, TX · 12.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Kings Mill is on U.S. Highway 60 seven miles southwest of Pampa near the western border of Gray County. It is on land formerly owned by the White Deer Lands Trust, a syndicate of British investors which assumed the…

  • Last Great Panhandle Cattle Drive to Montana · 12.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of the Panhandle, where one of the last great cattle drives set out. Look around – this was the N Bar N Headquarters, the staging ground for a massive undertaking in 1892. Imagine it:…

  • Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, a reminder of the pioneers who settled this land. The White Deer Land Company donated this five-acre plot in 1913, and the first burial was the infant son of the…

  • Jackson General Store · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Jackson General Store in White Deer. This building wasn't always here; it was moved to this location in 1908 when the townsite itself was established. For years, it was more than…

  • Polish Settlers of White Deer · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through White Deer, Texas, and you're passing the site of a remarkable journey. In 1854, a hundred Polish families – that’s 800 people – crammed onto one small sailing ship for a nine-week voyage across…

  • White Deer · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through White Deer, a town named for a creek that legend says was once a feeding ground for a white deer. This area wasn't just about legend, though. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Hotel at White Deer · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through White Deer, and right here is the site of a hotel that started life as a sales pitch. Back in the early 1900s, the White Deer Land Company was trying to sell off land, so they built this place…

  • First Baptist Church of White Deer · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through White Deer, and this historic Baptist church has seen it all. Organized in 1912, the congregation met in borrowed spaces before building their own sanctuary in 1921. They even paid off their debt…

  • White Deer Sacred Heart Catholic Church · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the White Deer Sacred Heart Catholic Church, founded by Polish settlers in 1913. They built this community from scratch, holding services in homes until a priest could visit. The church…

  • White Deer United Methodist Church · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the White Deer United Methodist Church, the oldest continuously active congregation in town. It began in 1911 with seven charter members and shared space with other denominations until…

  • First Presbyterian Church Building · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through White Deer, and right here stood the very first church building in town. Dedicated on July 4th, 1909, this little church was a true community effort, funded by gifts from pioneer members' home…

  • First Presbyterian Church · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of White Deer's very first church building. Dedicated on July 4th, 1909, this structure was a true community effort. Pioneer members' home churches and even donations from other…

  • N Bar N Ranch · 14.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, a land once defined by vast cattle ranches. Right here, in what is now Carson County, stood the N Bar N Ranch. Established in 1886 by brothers William and Frederick…

  • White Deer, TX · 14.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through White Deer, Texas, a town born from cattle and a curious sight. Back in 1882, the vast ranchlands here were claimed by the British-owned Francklyn Land and Cattle Company. The railroad arrived in…

  • The Polish Pioneers of the Panhandle · 14.2 mi

    A unique piece of White Deer's identity arrived by train in 1909. That year two Polish farmers, Henry Czerner and Ben Urbanczyk, came up from Panna Maria — the mother colony of Polish Texas, settled by families who…

  • Engineering the Panhandle Gas Field · 14.2 mi

    The oil boom that transformed White Deer was powered by a monumental feat of geological science and engineering. The Panhandle Field isn't just a pool of oil; it's one of the largest natural gas reservoirs ever…

  • When Black Gold Made White Deer a Boomtown · 14.2 mi

    Imagine White Deer in the early 1920s: a farm town on the railroad, incorporated in 1921, built on wheat and on a Polish farming colony that had raised Sacred Heart Catholic Church here in 1913. Then the Panhandle field…

  • White Deer, TX · 14.2 mi

    The history of White Deer is deeply rooted in cattle ranching and oil. The community was first settled around 1882 by the British-owned Francklyn Land and Cattle Company, later known as the White Deer Company. In 1919,…

  • The Office That Sold the Prairie · 14.2 mi

    White Deer exists because a land company decided to sell the prairie. In 1882 the British-owned Francklyn Land and Cattle Company stocked this country with cattle. When English bondholders foreclosed, it was reorganized…

  • White Deer Cemetery · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past White Deer Cemetery, a place with roots stretching back over a century. The story goes that an informal burial ground might have started as early as 1905 with an unnamed railroad worker killed in an…

  • Battle of North Fork of Red River · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Battle of North Fork of the Red River. On September 29, 1872, Colonel Ranald S. MacKenzie and his troops found a large Comanche village here, defying treaties. They captured the…

  • Red River War · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    The Red River War of 1874 was the campaign that ended the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne presence on the Southern Plains. It was not one battle but a relentless series of engagements across the Texas Panhandle, designed…

  • Harnessing the Panhandle Wind · 19.2 mi

    Look out your window at the horizon around Miami. Those giant, slowly spinning turbines are more than just landmarks; they are feats of modern engineering perfectly suited to this exact spot. The Texas Panhandle is one…

  • The Courthouse on the Prairie · 19.2 mi

    The most impressive building in Miami, by far, is the Roberts County Courthouse — and it stands here only because Miami won a nine-year brawl. When the county organized in January 1889, Miami carried the county-seat…

  • Miami Mammoth Kill Site · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Roberts County, near Miami, where a farmer's plow in 1933 uncovered something amazing: the bones of mammoths alongside human-made spear points. This site became a major WPA-funded excavation,…

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