Featured Themes, Sites, and Cities
Destination Highlights
TURNING YELLOW INTO GOLD
The color of the local creek bank soil and the saffron hue of area wildflowers were the most likely inspirations for naming this 1887 townsite for the Spanish word meaning yellow. Amarillo’s first...
Charles Goodnight, along with business partner John Adair, established the JA Ranch, the first cattle ranch in the Texas panhandle, in 1887 in the Palo Duro Canyon area.
At the Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic...
WHERE THE CLIFF SINGS AND THE CANYONS DANCE
Palo Duro Canyon, considered the “Grand Canyon of Texas” for its geological variation and rich color, is 120 miles long and 800 feet deep, making it one of the...
Travel Themes
ONE MAN, TWO WORLDS
The legend of Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Quahada Comanche Indians, serves both myth and history, illustrating a cautionary tale that chronicles the end of Native life on the Texas plains as...
YOU CAN STILL GET YOUR KICKS
Although much of the original route has been physically displaced, the spirit of Route 66 stills survives along the original route in Texas. This stretch of highway from Chicago to Los Angeles...
SING OUT
The first musical sounds heard across the pre-Texas landscape may have been birdsong, followed by the chants of nomadic tribes. In historic times, the ritual songs of the first Native Americans predate the Spanish...
