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The Panhandle-Plains Museum
Mar. 15th, 2022 02:29 pmCanyon, TX - Mon, 14 Mar 2022, 11am
"What's that imposing-looking building in this little town?" I wondered as I turned onto 4th Street in Canyon, TX, late at night on Saturday. We passed it again on Sunday afternoon, returning from our hike to Lighthouse Rock at Palo Duro Canyon. It's a museum. Specifically, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society Museum. Our travel schedule left us with a few hours open on Monday morning. Using that time to visit the museum a half mile away was a perfect fit.
About the name.... The Texas Panhandle, the part of Texas that fits under the panhandle shape of Oklahoma, geographically is part of the Great Plains.
The museum's exhibits begin with seemingly obligatory displays of skeletons from the eras of dinosaurs and mammoths. The plaques labeling them seem to question, though, whether they're actually from millions of years ago. They're careful to point out "apparently" they're from 5 million years ago, as if they could also be from 4,000 years ago. Because, y'know, around here a lot of people believe the world is only 6000-some years old and evolution and the fossil record are liberal plots to make Christians feel bad about themselves.
Then there were the displays about the natives who lived in the area before European settlers arrived. This portion of the museum's collection was thin, with obligatory displays of tepees, moccasins, and a papoose, but limited insight into how the people lived. It's noted, in so many words, that earnest sociological study only began after the natives were... "confined to Oklahoma" was their phrase. I.e., not until after most of them had been killed at the hands of settlers and the government.
Where the museum really began to shine was in its presentation of the period from the 1880s through mid 20th century. Yes, it's disappointing that there wasn't more material about the natives of the area, but not every museum can cover everything. At some point it's necessary to appreciate what each one is. And what this one really is, is a history of the sociological impact of technology starting in the 1880s.
Up through the late 1800s little had changed about how people lived in the Texas Panhandle. Oh, the people had changed— from one native people, to another, to Spanish settlers (starting with Francisco Coronado 100 years before pilgrims landed in Massachusetts), to American settlers. And some elements of technology changed. For example, European settlers introduced horses, for transportation. Later American settlers introduced cattle for ranching. Guns replaced spears and bow and arrow for hunting. But even in the 1880s settlers were still dependent on what the local land could offer.
Change took off like a rocket starting with the arrival of the first railroad in the panhandle in 1888. Amarillo itself was only founded about 10 years before that. At the time, at least 3 other cities in the area were larger. But when the rail depot was built in Amarillo, those other cities folded up as all regional commerce moved to Amarillo. In the next 50 years more things changed than in the previous 800.
The railroad changed transportation and commerce. Weeks-long cattle drives became things of the past. There was no longer a need to herd cattle off to some distant city when the depot in Amarillo was at worst few days' walk away. And the railroad helped deliver raw material and finished goods that previous had been luxuries available only to the wealthiest few.
The advent of the automobile changed the pandhandle, too. Except it wasn't just the availability of cars— kind of like a more personal, more flexible version of trains— but the entire oil economy that developed around the indispensability of the internal combustion engine. Oil was discovered in the panhandle in the late 1800s. It took off in the 1910s and 20s, when the number of wells in the region went from just a few to a few thousand. Oil is what put Texas on the map in the 20th century and beyond.
"What's that imposing-looking building in this little town?" I wondered as I turned onto 4th Street in Canyon, TX, late at night on Saturday. We passed it again on Sunday afternoon, returning from our hike to Lighthouse Rock at Palo Duro Canyon. It's a museum. Specifically, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society Museum. Our travel schedule left us with a few hours open on Monday morning. Using that time to visit the museum a half mile away was a perfect fit.
About the name.... The Texas Panhandle, the part of Texas that fits under the panhandle shape of Oklahoma, geographically is part of the Great Plains.
The museum's exhibits begin with seemingly obligatory displays of skeletons from the eras of dinosaurs and mammoths. The plaques labeling them seem to question, though, whether they're actually from millions of years ago. They're careful to point out "apparently" they're from 5 million years ago, as if they could also be from 4,000 years ago. Because, y'know, around here a lot of people believe the world is only 6000-some years old and evolution and the fossil record are liberal plots to make Christians feel bad about themselves.
Then there were the displays about the natives who lived in the area before European settlers arrived. This portion of the museum's collection was thin, with obligatory displays of tepees, moccasins, and a papoose, but limited insight into how the people lived. It's noted, in so many words, that earnest sociological study only began after the natives were... "confined to Oklahoma" was their phrase. I.e., not until after most of them had been killed at the hands of settlers and the government.
Where the museum really began to shine was in its presentation of the period from the 1880s through mid 20th century. Yes, it's disappointing that there wasn't more material about the natives of the area, but not every museum can cover everything. At some point it's necessary to appreciate what each one is. And what this one really is, is a history of the sociological impact of technology starting in the 1880s.
Up through the late 1800s little had changed about how people lived in the Texas Panhandle. Oh, the people had changed— from one native people, to another, to Spanish settlers (starting with Francisco Coronado 100 years before pilgrims landed in Massachusetts), to American settlers. And some elements of technology changed. For example, European settlers introduced horses, for transportation. Later American settlers introduced cattle for ranching. Guns replaced spears and bow and arrow for hunting. But even in the 1880s settlers were still dependent on what the local land could offer.
Change took off like a rocket starting with the arrival of the first railroad in the panhandle in 1888. Amarillo itself was only founded about 10 years before that. At the time, at least 3 other cities in the area were larger. But when the rail depot was built in Amarillo, those other cities folded up as all regional commerce moved to Amarillo. In the next 50 years more things changed than in the previous 800.
The railroad changed transportation and commerce. Weeks-long cattle drives became things of the past. There was no longer a need to herd cattle off to some distant city when the depot in Amarillo was at worst few days' walk away. And the railroad helped deliver raw material and finished goods that previous had been luxuries available only to the wealthiest few.
The advent of the automobile changed the pandhandle, too. Except it wasn't just the availability of cars— kind of like a more personal, more flexible version of trains— but the entire oil economy that developed around the indispensability of the internal combustion engine. Oil was discovered in the panhandle in the late 1800s. It took off in the 1910s and 20s, when the number of wells in the region went from just a few to a few thousand. Oil is what put Texas on the map in the 20th century and beyond.
