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!
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