As you drive north on US 87 you leave Hartley county and enter Dallam County. As you do so, you go through a little town called Dalhart, so named for both of those counties.
Dallam county was founded in 1876 and was named for James Dallam, a lawyer for the Texas Republic. The county was organized in 1891 and a little town called Texline was named the county seat because it sat on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad line. In 1882, the Texas Legislature needed a capitol building so they made a bargain with the Farrell Brothers of Chicago. The brothers would build a capitol for the State of Texas in return for three MILLION acres of land in the Texas panhandle. That land became the famous XIT Ranch.
Then in 1901, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad built a line that cross the Fort Worth and Denver City right at Dalhart. In 1903, the county seat was moved from Texline to Dalhart and this courthouse was built.
Dalhart grew pretty quickly resulting in the need for a new courthouse. In 1923, this courthouse was erected. Dalhart became a shipping center for the XIT Ranch. The Ranch was eventually dissolved in 1912 but it was the biggest ranch in the world.
Dalhart has the distinction of being closer to the capital of six states than it is to its own capital in Austin, Texas. It's 570 miles from Austin but only 260 miles from Santa Fe, NM; 313 miles from Oklahoma City, OK; 348 miles from Denver, CO; 448 miles from Cheyenne, WY; 467 miles from Topeka, KS; and 544 miles from Lincoln, NE.
The La Rita Theater was built in the early 1920s and served as a movie theater. It survived the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. By 1957, it had closed and fallen into disrepair. In 1989, the Dalhart Community Theater bought the building and restored it as a performing arts theater.
This is the Mission Twins Theater building which was built in the 1921. The brick building was covered in stucco to make it look like an adobe building. As the name suggests, there were twin theaters and movies were shown here until 2010. Then the building was gutted and converted to a church.
The back view of the courthouse with this gorgeous clock. I couldn't find when it was installed.
Downtown Dalhart.
This cool looking building was built in 1929 as a Chrysler Automobile Dealership. Over the years it has housed other dealerships as well as an auto parts store and a USO building. It has housed the XIT museum since 1975. It started as the annual XIT Rodeo and Reunion when someone suggested that it be a permanent exhibit. After a couple of hiccups, it opened in time for the 1975 annual rodeo. The museum is open Tues - Sun and has several different exhibits. The next time we drive through, I'm hoping we have time to stop in.
Dalhart may be small (the population is 8500) but I think it's the biggest town in the area. They have all of your standard mid-level hotels (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, etc) and most of your chain fast food restaurants. The grain elevators are right off the highway as you drive through. The Hilmar Company has a cheese processing plant in town and it's also the home of a State Prison. The big grocery store is the United Supermarket (not even a Walmart!)
I liked it up there. It's a bit dusty but I thought the town to be kind of quaint. If you up in the panhandle of Texas, check it out!
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