Checking in in Childress County

Railroad into Childress

In the southeast corner of the Texas Panhandle is Childress County. This was the site of our last visit before hitting the highway home. It, like many of the other counties, has a history of land use by Native Americans, visitation by European explorers, and early colonization by ranchers. In fact at one time almost the entire county was occupied by four large ranches. Cattle from these were driven along the Palo Duro - Dodge City trail to Dodge City, Kansas.

Dinging about in Donley County

Antique car

Donley is another small county in the Panhandle of Texas. As of 2019 there are only about 3,000 residents and that number is down around 11% from previous years. While this was once cattle country, it’s now mixed use of ranching and farming. In good years there are enough crops for folks to make a living; but when there is drought, lots of irrigation is needed just to break even.

Ambling along to Armstrong County

Bank building

I thought that Amarillo was the seat of Armstrong County, but I was wrong. It’s actually the seat of Potter County and is near the geographic center of the Texas Panhandle. Its name may come from the yellow wildflowers that are plentiful in the area since amarillo is yellow in Spanish. Someday we’ll actually visit that county courthouse and I’ll write about Potter County – but not today. Here’s a nice picture of a bank we passed; I think the architecture is Classical Revival but it may be Federal.

Dallam County, the Last of the XIT

Until this trip all I knew about the XIT Ranch was that at one time it had

XIT Ranch Museum

been the largest spread in Texas. I didn’t know that two men got all of the land by supplying the stone for and building of the state capitol, nor did I know that there were so many little towns that originated as business centers for the ranch. There’s lots more to learn, and not just about ranching in Texas.

Parking in Parmer County

As a kid I thought calling something the ‘panhandle’ of a state was funny.

One of the older houses in Farwell

Of course, Oklahoma looked a bit like a pot with a handle, but Florida didn’t fit that image, and neither did Texas. Adults had odd ways of naming things, and this was one of their idiosyncrasies. Dave and I have driven through the Texas Panhandle lots of times, but we’ve never stopped in Parmer County and in particular Farwell. We can’t say that now.

Shoeing Mules in Bailey County

My grandmother talked about traveling to Muleshoe, Texas on a wagon

Muleshoe City Limit

when she was a child. She may have visited it, again, when she was at West Texas Normal College in Canyon, Texas. In any case, I was enamored with the name of this town and wondered what mule lost its shoe there. As we headed to New Mexico, I was surprised when that tiny town popped up on our GPS. Of course we had to make a stop.

Lighting up Lubbock County

Fine arts on a bridge

Lubbock County is among the 20 most populous counties in Texas. Part of Lubbock’s claim to fame is that it is home to a rather large university from which my niece and her husband graduated. We rolled into town late in the afternoon ready for a hotel and a good dinner. It was time for us to rest so we didn’t see much of the city. We’ll be back, again, someday soon since the Buddy Holly Center is still on my list of things to see.

Having Cereal in Garza County

Faith Lutheran Church built in 1915
by Presbyterians

About the time we reached Garza County I quit paying much attention to where we were and was looking forward to where we were going. One of the things on my mind was lunch; however I was also contemplating dinner since I wanted it to be a good meal rather than something we just grabbed on the way to the hotel. This meant that lunch would be something light. So what do two supposed adults choose for a road trip lunch?

Kicking It in Kent County

Bluebonnets

Kent County is one of the smallest in Texas with a population of 763; and that number is dropping. This 903 square mile (2,339 km²) county is located in northwest Texas amidst the open prairie and mesquite woodland. It’s one of six prohibition or entirely dry counties in the state.

Strutting in Stonewall County

Small roads took us through some little tiny towns and one caught my

Cactus sculpture

interest: Aspermont. It reminded me of aspirin, aspirgum, asparagus, asti spumante, and a host of other sound alike words. I certainly hadn’t heard of the town and didn’t expect to actually go through it. However, as the road curved we drove into this mini-metropolis. Surprisingly it is the seat of Stonewall County. This county has less than 1,400 people and is dwindling; Aspermont had 855 people as of 2017.

Hanging out in Haskell County

Slightly larger than Throckmorton County is Haskell County with about

Historical Marker about Peters'
Colony

5,700 people and declining. You may not reach the end of the internet there, but you do reach the western boundary of what was Peters Colony. It seems that we can’t get out of Peters Colony if we’re in Texas roaming around. The eastern boundary cuts through Grayson, Collin, Dallas and Ellis Counties. That means that the Peters Colony land grant was about 200 miles wide.

Thriving in Throckmorton County

Farm tractor

Just west of Young County is Throckmorton; the entire county has just over 1,500 souls and that number is dropping. Much of its landscape and history are extremely similar to that of Young County. It’s one of only six entirely ‘dry’ counties in Texas. And for you who don’t know what being ‘dry’ means, the definition varies. In some places you can get alcohol by the glass in a ‘club’ but not by the bottle anywhere. However, in this county you can’t buy alcohol at all in any situation.

Yonder in Young County

As of the 2019 estimate, Young County has about 18,000 people which is

Cowboy and cactus near courthouse

three percent less than it had during the previous census. And if you take the path we did, it’s about 100 miles from Keller. As you head west the countryside becomes more arid, letting you know that you’re about to hit the rolling plains. This is cattle country, but that doesn’t mean that ranchers can raise lots of stock on small amounts of land. Some of the largest ranches in Texas were located on these plains. Rather than being out on the ranch, the ranch headquarters were located in towns, making it easier to do business and giving wide spots in the road a more positive economic basis from which to grow.

A Collection of Courthouses

Lake LBJ

We spent a good deal of time exploring tiny towns on our road trip to Packsaddle, but on the way back we stopped at only a few places. We did spend some time at the county seats, read a few historical markers, and took a few pictures. There were some places that peeked our interest, plus a few we’ll run into along the way, and I’m sure that some later blogs will relate our trips back to these places that I’ll just highlight in this blog post.

Llooking in on Llano

There are times when I really wish I had listened more carefully to the

Llano River

stories my grandmother told about her early life in Texas. What I know about Llano comes mostly from studying geology in college: the Llano uplift is a geologic dome about 90 miles in diameter made up of exposures of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks that are surrounded by Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary strata. This makes a geologist’s heart go pitty-pat as does the fact that Llanite is a form of granite that is only found in the Llano Uplift. However, there are lots of interesting things about Llano that have nothing to do with geology.

Goldthwaite Gold

Before we venture out on road trips I try to do at least a bit of research

Abandoned house and well

about where we’re going beyond looking for places to eat and to stay. My task was made difficult because I didn’t pay attention to how the name of the town is spelled. That middle ‘th’ gave me all sorts of problems, but I was sure that there had to be something written about Goldthwaite, so I persevered. Eventually I got the spelling right and found a goodly amount of history concerning the seat of Mills County.

Checking out Comanche

We had to watch our timing for this road trip because Dave had a

Dave with Royal King, member of
the American Quarter Horse Hall
of Fame

particular restaurant he wanted to try in Comanche. We made it to the town early enough for lunch and to spend a good deal of time walking around the town looking at Texas Historical Markers and Comanche County Historical Markers. The historical society for this county is very active and has obviously done lots of research. What they have posted is interesting and sometimes quite humorous.  We’re planning a trip back to Comanche for several reasons, not the least of which is to take a look at the markers we missed.

Going to Glen Rose

It’s not lions and tigers and bears, but reptiles and water and mud, Oh My! One of my

Old tree and blue sky

memories from the 1950s is traveling to the Paluxy River to see the dinosaur tracks. I thought that the tracks were made the day before and was rather disappointed when I was told that they were trace fossils; I wouldn’t see any actual dinosaurs lurking in the woods. We clambered down the side of the river and stared into the muddy water to see holes in rocks. My other disappointment was that there had been lots of rain and the water was too deep for me to sit in the tracks. I was underwhelmed. I’m fairly sure that I hadn’t been back to Glen Rose until this last visit. This time, although there had been rain, the water was clear and the tracks were visible, plus it was a warm day with a bright, blue, Texas sky – it was worth the drive!

Coming to Cameron

Small house in Cameron

The little town of Cameron, Texas really had nothing to recommend it; no industry, to railway, no tourist attractions, but it was selected as the seat of Milam County in 1846. However, it is a pretty location in the eastern portion of the Texas Hill Country. Named after Ewen Cameron, a Scot highlander who played prominent roles in the Texas Revolution and the Mier Expedition, Cameron struggled to maintain its status and population due to its isolated location. This is one of the few towns in Texas that didn’t grow up around a railroad. It is located on the Little River and this was thought to be a boon to business, if trade routes along this waterway could be established. But in the mid-1800s navigation was attempted, and although a successful trip was managed, it was decided that regular transportation of goods was impractical. In the late 1800s the railroads finally found their way to Cameron, but this industry had disappeared by the mid-1900s. Oil and cotton maintained the economy for many years, and several dairy product companies made their homes near the town, also supplying jobs for the population. These businesses have also decreased, leaving the town a small, attractive place with a few historic sites and a very nice courthouse.

Doing Lunch in Denton

Morrison's Corn Kits Plant

It’s always great fun to have an adult ‘play day’, so one morning early I took off for a friend’s house near Denton, Texas. We were planning to do some beading, giggling, and dog wrangling, as well as taking a break from all of this hard work to have lunch. Denton is an interesting town, the seat of Denton County and home to two major universities. This town, like many others, was part of the land grant given to William S. Peters and named Peters Colony; later Hiram Cisco, William Woodruff, and William Loving donated 100 acres as the actual site for the town. However, both the town and the county were named for John B. Denton, a preacher and lawyer killed by the Kichai people in the Battle of Village Creek. In 1857, Otis G. Welch, county surveyor Charles C. Lacy, and Joseph A. Carroll laid out the city and named the first streets, but Denton was not incorporated until 1866.This area of the state was agricultural and became a center for flour and cottonseed oil mills, along with cottage industries when the Texas and Pacific Railway and Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway established stops here in 1881. Since these connections only went north-south, the town did not develop as a manufacturing and wholesale center. This first rail connection brought an influx of people to the area and set the stage for the creation of North Texas Normal College (University of North Texas) in 1890, and the Girls Industrial College (Texas Woman's University) in 1901. As the universities grew, so did their impact on Denton's economy and culture.