Claude, Texas: The Movie Capital of the Texas Panhandle

We often drive up 287 on our way to Colorado. On that stretch are several small towns that I would love to stop and check out. One of those towns is Claude, Texas.

Claude is about 30 miles east of Amarillo and the county seat of Armstrong County. It was founded in 1887 when the Fort Worth and Denver Railway came through town. It was named for Claude Ayers, the engineer that drove the first passenger train through town. The train established Claude as a shipping point for cattle.

The Armstrong County courthouse was built in 1912 and is still an active courthouse today.

In the 1890s, the Palace Hotel was built at this location. It was a three story building and the largest hotel in the Texas panhandle. It was built by J.M. White and was known for amenities such as steam heat and electric lights. I'm not sure what happened to the building but the Corner Drug building is in its place.

The Armstrong County Museum is a free museum that is located on Trice Street, across 287 from the courthouse. It takes up several buildings. It was started in 1990. It's a very cool museum. There are examples of various businesses, electronics, and photos that give you a history of Armstrong County. We were very lucky to have a guided tour. I didn't get the lady's name but she was a fountain of information about the people that lived there. Unfortunately, no photos inside the museum.

The Gem Theater is part of the Armstrong County Museum complex. It opened in 1915 as The Claudia and it hosted live events. It later became the Rialto. Inside there's the main theater and then a balcony on the second floor. It was really cool.

The Claude News is a weekly newspaper that started back in 1890 as the Claude Argus. In 1891, the paper merged with the Goodnight News. The paper was run from this building for a while. Our guide in the museum said that the paper was now published from the owner's home. This building, also erected in 1915 was donated to the Armstrong County Museum in 2005. This building holds some cool war memorials. There's also an exhibit for the Boy Scouts as Claude had one of the earliest and now oldest Boy Scout Troops.

This is the Armstrong County Sheriff's office and Jail. This building was erected in 1953. It used stone from the original jail that was constructed in 1894. For that jail, the stones were quarried from Palo Duro Canyon and then hauled here in wagons by citizens. That building had 2 stories and 20 inch thick walls! It was known as "Fort Knox" and only three convicts had ever escaped.  It ceased to be a jail in 2022 due to the cost of upkeep.

Claude is known as the movie capital of the Texas Panhandle because of the movies that were shot here. The most famous, of course, is Hud from 1963 staring Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. A made for tv movie called Sunshine was shot here in 1977. And finally, there was a little movie called Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

We enjoyed our stop in Claude. The visit to the museum alone was well worth the visit. Next time you're up that way, stop in and check it out.

Amarillo, Texas: The Yellow Rose

Every year we spend some time in Colorado visiting friends and every year we pass through Amarillo. This year we decided to stop and check it out.

The city started as a railroad camp for the Fort Worth and Denver City railway. In 1887, the town was platted by J. T. Berry. He and some merchants from Colorado City chose a spot that had plenty of water. In 1888, Henry Sanborn, the father of Amarillo, started buying land a bit east of Berry's settlement claiming it was too low and would flood in a rainstorm. In 1889, it did. 

Originally named Oneida, the name of the town was changed to Amarillo, possibly because of the yellow soil that bordered the creek of the same name. Amarillo was named the county seat of Potter county and in 1888 had their first courthouse.  By 1889, they had already outgrown it and a new courthouse was constructed, just in time for the flood. Heavily damaged, the courthouse was moved to higher ground and a brick structure was erected. Once again, it was quickly outgrown. In 1904. this three story courthouse was constructed. In 1915, the dome was removed and an additional floor was added.

In 1932, the current courthouse was constructed.

Due to the access of the railroad, Amarillo was a cattle marketing center. In the early 1900s, it also became a grain elevator, milling and feed manufacturing center. In 1918, natural gas was discovered which brought the oil and gas industry to town as well.

Route 66, also known as the Mother Road, runs through Amarillo so they have their fair share of roadside attractions. The biggest is the 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The deal is that if you can eat it, it's free! The rules are that (1) you have to pay first. If you finish, you'll be refunded. (2) You have to eat the whole dinner which includes a shrimp cocktail, house salad, baked potato, dinner roll and the steak, (3) you have an hour to do it. The first person to accomplish this feat was a 445 lb wrestler named Klondike Bill back in 1965.

Big Tex Rex is a dinosaur in cowboy boots. He sits outside the Steak Ranch.

Another famous roadside stop is the Cadillac Ranch where several Cadillacs are buried nose down and then painted. This is the closer Slug Bug Ranch, which has both VW Bugs and Cadillacs.

Amarillo also has an art museum and it's free! The permanent collection is Asian art, which is cool. The second floor has different exhibits that switch out from time to time. It's on the Amarillo College campus. There are other museums to check out such as The Texas Air and Space Museum and the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame to name a couple.

This is the Liberty Theater which was built in 1921. It's notable because it had a balcony which is where Black and Hispanic people were allowed to sit and watch the movies. Back then, that was something! It was abandoned in 1953. Back in 2013, there was an effort to revitalize it but, unfortunately, they couldn't raise the money, I guess. The building is over 100 years old and most likely has structural issues. It's too bad the city couldn't use it for something.

This is the Paramount theater and it's in the middle of downtown. It opened in 1932 and was considered Amarillo's finest theater. It showed movies until 1975. In 1978, it was converted to office space. Since then the lobby has been restored to its original glory and, in 2006, the sign was restored as well. Now, the lobby has a coffee shop and a sushi restaurant.

Woolworth's was a five and dime store that was famous for its lunch counter, which featured grilled cheese sandwiches. This store was built in 1925 and hung around until 1997. Now it houses retail shops and restaurants. I love that they kept the Woolworth's sign.

This amazing building is the Herring Hotel. It was built in 1927 by Cattleman/Oilman/Banker Cornelius Herring. He wanted a place to get his business done in style. When it was built, it was the tallest building in Amarillo at 13 floors plus a basement. The 600 room hotel was built at a cost of $1,000,000 (which is about $14M today). The hotel closed in 1966. In the 1970s it was repurposed as office space but by 1978, it was vacant. Like the Liberty Theater there were plans for renovation but they seem to have fallen through.

The Santa Fe building was the headquarters for the Santa Fe railroad. From this building they managed miles and miles of tracks across the country. Built in 1930 at 14 stories high, it replaced the Herring Hotel as the tallest building in Amarillo, a distinction it held for forty years. It was sold to Potter County and now houses office space for the county.

This is the Potter County Library. This building was designed by Amarillo Architects J. Roy Smith and W.C. Townes, and was built in 1922 by the W.M. Rice construction company at a cost of $25,000. The basement of the library was used as a public lounge to meet the needs of women shoppers and their children, and tourists. The facility included a living room, lunch room, assembly hall and resting room, and was staffed by a matron. It's a very inviting building and it sits next to the county courthouse.

We also found out that Amarillo had a baseball team! This is Hodgetown, home to the Amarillo Sod Poodles. The Soddies are a Double A team for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The stadium was built in 2019.

The Soddies were in town so we had to go. They played the San Antonio Missions. This is Ruckus the Sod Poodle. Unfortunately, he and the Soddies lost but it was fun!

There are 200K people that live there, which is half the population of the panhandle. It's also the economic center of the panhandle. Meat packing is a huge industry here. In fact, one fourth of the beef supply in the United States is processed here. The biggest employer is Tyson Foods.

We had a great time in Amarillo. There's a lot of history and surprisingly, a lot of fun things to do there as well. If you're getting your kicks on route 66 (or I-40), stop in and check it out!

Waco, Texas: The Heart of Texas

Texas is a big state. I can drive for 8 hours in most any direction and still be in Texas. But that's okay because Texas has a lot to see. If you drive down I-35 for about an hour and half from Dallas, you are right smack dab in the middle of Waco. If I've driven through Waco once, I've driven through a hundred times. This time, we stopped.

Waco sits on the Brazos River, the 14th longest river in Texas, and is the county seat of McLennan County. The county is named for Neil McLennan, a Scotsman who acquired a league of land in 1838 from Empresario Sterling Robertson. When Jacob de Cordoba bought the land in 1849, he had Texas Ranger, George Erath survey it and laid out the initial streets. The town was named Waco for the Indians that lived there first.

McLennan County has had several courthouses. The first was built in 1850. It was a two-story log cabin. It didn't last long. By 1856, they needed something bigger so they built another courthouse. This one was not built well structurally. In 1877, this courthouse was built. It was located at Franklin and 2nd Street. By 1900, this courthouse also became too small. The building was sold and was the home to Crow Brothers Steam Laundry. By 1926, the building had been demolished.

In 1901, the fourth McLennan County Courthouse was built and is still in use today. In 1930, Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie & Clyde fame) stood trial here on numerous charges of burglary and theft. In 1955, the first murder trial to be televised was held in this beautiful courthouse.

In 1869, the Waco Suspension Bridge was built, the first bridge to cross the Brazos River. It started out as a toll bridge, charging for foot traffic, carriages, and if you were sending your cattle across, you were charged five cents per head. Prior to the bridge, a ferry was used to cross the river.

Another view of the Waco Suspension Bridge. In 1889, the bridge was sold to the county and it became a free bridge. Today, it's a pedestrian bridge and a great way to get a lovely view of the Brazos River.

This is the Alico building. This 22-story building was erected in 1911 for the Amicable Life Insurance Company. In 1958, it survived an F5 tornado that hit downtown Waco and demolished a good part of the city. The American-Amicable Life Insurance Company is still the tenant in this building.

Waco is known for a lot of things and one of them is the birthplace of Dr Pepper. In 1885, there was a pharmacy on this spot, Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store. This is back when pharmacists actually mixed your medicines. 

In 1906, this building was erected at 5th and Mary Streets as an Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company. There's an actual well inside the building on the first floor where the water was drawn and used to bottle Dr Pepper. They continued bottling the soft drink here until about 1965 when the company moved to a more modern facility. It sat vacant until 1988 when it was donated for a museum.

The museum opened in 1991. On the first floor is a replica of the Old Corner Drug Store where Dr Pepper was invented. There's also a timeline of the invention of soft drinks in general. Did you know Coca Cola was invented by a guy who was trying to cure his morphine addiction?

This is the Kellum Rotan Building. They were wholesale grocers that were originally located on the other side of the Brazos River. They moved to this building in 1882 to take advantage of the proximity to the railroad. The building is now part of the Dr Pepper Museum. Inside is an old fashioned soda fountain. At the end of your tour, you can get a free drink. If you just want the drink, the soda fountain is open to the public. You just have to buy it.

Another fabulous museum in Waco is the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum. It gives the history of the Texas Rangers, warts and all. 

For a long time, Waco was known for the disaster related to the Branch Davidians. In 1993, a religious group led by David Koresh lived in a compound about 13 miles outside of Waco. They were suspected of stockpiling weapons so the ATF got a warrant and they were going to raid the camp. The Davidians were tipped off and it became a gun battle instead. After 51 days, tear gas was tossed into the camp. It just went downhill from there. A lot of people died, including children.

Then in 2013, locals Chip and Joanna Gaines started a show called "Fixer Upper". They would fix up old houses in Waco and the world was fascinated. These are the Silos in Waco. Back when cotton was king, the owners of the silos would press the cottonseeds to extract the oil and the oil was stored in the silos. That business went under in the 1990s. Chip and Joanna bought them in 2014.

The put their Magnolia stamp on them and turned the whole area into a tourist attraction. The complex houses the Magnolia Home, the Magnolia Press where you can get coffee and the Silos Bakery where you can get treats.

The Gaines' changed the perception of Waco by "renovating" the town. This building, for example, was built in 1928 for the Grand Karem Shriners, a Masonic group that used this building until 1995. It was sold to the county who then used some of it for office space. In 2018, Chip and Joanna partnered with an equity company and converted this building to a luxury boutique hotel called Hotel 1928. It has 33 rooms, a restaurant and a bar.

In addition to all the museums, Waco is also home to Baylor University. The photo is not mine. We had so much other stuff to do, we ran out of time. Having said that, Waco is truly a college town. We stayed downtown in June after classes let out and there was nothing going on. Walking around at night, we had the place practically to ourselves. The museums were pretty empty, except the Dr Pepper museum. Baylor University, named for R. E. B. Baylor, was originally in Independence, Texas. In 1845, it merged with Waco University and it settled here in Waco. It's a private Baptist University.

McClane Stadium, right on the Brazos River.

I liked Waco. It was a big enough city that it had all your chain restaurants, fast food and grocery stores but small enough to have that small town feel. It's called the "heart of Texas" because of its central location. There are 138,500 people that live there. The biggest employers in town are Baylor University, of course, Ascension, Waco ISD, H-E-B, and Baylor Scott & White.

If you're passing through and you have the time, stop and check it out! I think you'll be surprised.

Belton, Texas: The Live Music Capital of Bell County

Belton, Texas is a small town about 30 minutes south of Waco. Head down I-35 S, when you get to Temple, hang a right and you're there!

Established in 1850, Belton is the county seat of Bell County. It was originally named "Nolanville" for the Nolan Springs that were nearby. When Bell county was formed, the town was renamed.  

The county was named for Peter Hansbrough Bell, who was Governor of Texas at the time.

Belton is also the home of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Formed in 1845, the original name of the school was Baylor Female College. It was named for R. E. B. Baylor, who also helped form Baylor University. Baylor Female College was coeducational but the sexes were separated. In 1929, the college was in financial straits due to the Great Depression. Mary Hardin was a school teacher from Burkburnett. When she and her husband discovered oil on their property, they became very wealthy. They donated money to the College. In appreciation, the college changed the name to Mary Hardin-Baylor College.

The campus is beautiful! As I mentioned, R. E. B. Baylor was helpful in founding the institution. Baylor was a Judge and a Preacher. He would ride the circuit, hearing cases in various places. Then he would stay in that place until Sunday and preach. He was originally buried in Independence, Texas where the original site of Baylor University was located. In 1885, Baylor University was moved to Waco and merged with Waco University. The people of Independence weren't happy about that. In 1917, Baylor's remains were reinterred at Mary Hardin-Baylor College.

One thing I thought was interesting is that every graduating class made a gift to the school to beautify the grounds. This concrete bench was gifted by the graduating class of 1902. It's the oldest surviving gift on campus. Other gifts include a gazebo, trees, fountains, etc. This was my favorite. All the names from that graduating class are etched into the bench.

At the entrance of the UMHB Campus is this house. It's called the Curtis Mansion. It was built in 1902 by cotton broker William Ray Miller. In 1914, it was sold to Lon and Cora Curtis who lived there for the next 60 years. In 2015, it became property of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The house has five bedrooms, three bathrooms and is 5,303 square feet.

In 1907, Belton was the recipient for a grant from Andrew Carnegie for a Library. In 1899, the Wednesday Women's Club, a literary club consisting of 25 members, persuaded Carnegie to donate the $10,000 for the library. The way the deals worked was that Carnegie would fund the construction of the building but the citizens would have to supply the books, run the library and maintain it.  The Wednesday Women's Club donated the books and it was an active library until 1975.

There were 32 such libraries in Texas. Only 13 of the buildings are still standing. Belton is using their building as part of the Bell County Museum.

Speaking of, this is the Bell County Museum. In the early 2000s, this building, called the Guffy Building, was linked to the library through a walkway. I was impressed by the museum. It's free, requesting only donations. To the left of the entrance is a room that has various exhibits. 

When we were there, they had a Bob Hope exhibit that was on loan from the World War II Museum. It was very cool. There was a short documentary on Bob Hope's work with the troops during World War II.

Also on that side of the museum is the Marshall Log Cabin. The one room cabin was built in 1854 by John Marshall when he lived in Little River, Texas.  He later built a farmhouse around this cabin that required the removal on one wall. In 2001, the cabin was donated to and reassembled in the Bell County Museum.

To the right of the entrance of the museum, is the history of Bell County. Located on the first floor of the Carnegie Library are artifacts and placards that relate the history of the county. This particular artifact is the 1917 clock from the Temple National Bank.

Across the street from the museum is the historic U.S. Post Office building. It was built in 1917 and Alvah Ferguson was post master. Alvah was the brother of James Ferguson, who happened to be Governor of Texas at the time. By 1973, the building was in sad shape. A heavy storm saw 1/2 an inch of rain leak into the post office. In 1983, a new post office was built. I'm assuming that repairs were made to this building which now houses the Central Texas Workforce Development Board Administrative Office.

The Coca-Cola Mural in downtown Belton, Texas. The mural predates any of the known slogans used over the years. In October 2002, students from the UMHB art department restored the mural. 

Continuing down Main Street, we come to the beautiful Bell County Courthouse. Built in 1885, this is the third county courthouse to stand in this spot. The first was a log cabin built in 1852. In 1855, that cabin was sold (how weird to actually sell a building and have it carted away) and a new courthouse was built in 1859. The commissioners designed a very fancy and , for the time, costly courthouse at $13,625. None of those commissioners were re-elected. The current courthouse was remodeled in 1950 and the tower and dome were removed. In 1999, the whole courthouse was restored using the original plans.

Behind the Courthouse a little further up Main Street is the Grand Opera House. It was built in 1895. Each floor was built by a different person. When the project ran out of money before it was finished, Martha McWhirter of the Sanctified Sisters came to the rescue.

The Sanctified Sisters were the Women's Commonwealth which was a group of women that formed a commune on land that was inherited by women when their husbands died or when the husbands abandoned them. They all had chores and they ran some businesses in Belton. By 1900, they relocated from Belton to Washington DC.

This is the Cochran, Blair and Potts department store in Downtown Belton. The store opened in 1884 and has been there ever since. They sold dry goods, hardware, drugs and coffins. A veritable one-stop shop! 

Belton was a cool little town. There are about 23,000 people that live there. Right on the city limits there's an HEB, which is one of the bigger employers of the city. While they may not have your standard restaurant chains, they butt right up next to Temple so the citizens can still take advantage of those places while living in small town USA.

Check it out!