Welcome back to Amarillo!
There are a number of interesting things to see in close proximity to Amarillo, both man made and otherwise. I’ll warn you in advance, it’s a VERY eclectic collection of little adventures!
Cadillac Ranch
Obviously, Augie and I couldn’t pass this up! On the western edge of the Amarillo along the south side of Interstate 40 sits one of the more unique attractions in Texas, the Cadillac Ranch. Of course, I can’t pass up this homage to my parents because Cadillacs were such an integral part of my childhood. For whatever reason, my dad LOVED Cadillacs and, regardless of our economic circumstances at the time, I can never remember when he did not drive a Cadillac. This held true even after he passed as my mother continued to navigate the streets of Billings in the big blue “aircraft carrier”until she was no longer able to drive. So, how can I pass this up? Augie and I were off…
The Cadillac Ranch is a child of the 70’s. The idea came out of a group of artists in San Francisco called the “Ant Farm” who found a sympathetic millionaire who agreed to pay for the installation on a farm west of Amarillo. The idea was to make some sort of statement about modern architecture by burying 10 vintage Cadillacs head down in the ground at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Egypt (I think you had to be around in the 70’s to get how this might happen!), and so they did. The original installation was in a wheat field two miles west of Amarillo but when it began to be surrounded by the expanding city the site was in danger of being overrun with development. In 1997 the cars were dug up and moved about five miles further west of town along the interstate frontage road. There are ten Cadillacs sticking up out of the ground. Visitors bring cans of spray paint and cover the cars with graffiti. The idea is that you bring a can of spray paint and do your own thing (note that Augie left his mark!) I was there about 10:30 in the morning on a Sunday and look at what I found. There is no parking lot so you just pull over along the road and there were all kinds of vehicles already there!
There is an entrance “gate” designed to keep the cows off the road (you can see it just above the Suburban on the left in the picture above) and once through you walk across the field to the installation. In the background you can see ten Cadillacs that have been buried in the ground.
The idea is that they are “living” works of art and so you bring cans of spray paint and decorate as much as you like. One of the things that did impress me about this is that I didn’t see any profanity on the cars! There’s no entrance fee and no supervision, it’s just out there in the middle of that field.
It was kind of cold and windy, which made using the spray paint a bit “dicey”, but intrepid tourists journeyed on. All were having a pretty good time and I passed on my half-empty can of paint to a couple of German tourists who were just a bit bemused by all that they were seeing!
Just another little piece of Americana…. Now, for a change of pace, let’s go visit the “horsies”!
American Quarter Horse Museum
My very first impression is that people who are in to quarter horses have a lot of money because this was a very impressive complex. I don’t know what the American Quarter Horse Association does that requires a huge three story office building, but they must do something! On the right of Quarter Horse Drive is the national headquarters of the American Quarter Horse Association and on the left is the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum.
Entering the museum almost seems like entering church (and I suppose for some people it is…)
Off this huge hall is a small series of very elegant galleries featuring paintings, pictures and sculptures of quarter horses as it tells the story of the importance of the quarter horse and the West. The best part of it (to me) was the incredible collection of bronzes scattered throughout. Note that the the horse in the third picture was carved out of single piece of pink crystal.
A large gallery in the back showed aspects of the historic environment around quarter horses: stables, veterinarian’s office, chuck wagon, etc., as well as a current horse trailer.
The second floor was the Hall of Fame portion and really it was like a mausoleum for the “Who’s Who” of nearly 400 people from the past history of the Quarter Horse Association who have died. Each person had a biographical plaque and picture hung on the wall in back of the case and then in front of them was personal mementos (hats, boots, saddles, etc.) that had belonged to that person. It was all very elegant and reverent and if you are in to quarter horses, I suppose it is special. To a “dufus” like me it just seemed a little creepy…, I mean, their old boots???
I need to clear my mind, so it’s off to the great outdoors!
Palo Duro
Raise your hand if you know that the largest canyon in the United States is the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona and Utah. Ok, everyone raised their hands. Now, raise your hand if you know that the second largest canyon in the United States is the Grand Canyon of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River in Texas. Hmmmm, the number of hands dwindled to a very few awfully quickly! Add me to the list of ignorant people… Since the “Grand Canyon of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River” is quite a mouthful, the canyon is commonly referred to by the name of the Texas state park that contains much of it, Palo Duro.
Visualize the topography of the land around Amarillo as a table top, flat in all directions. Then note that someone didn’t quite close the table after the last family dinner and the table cloth is caught in the little gap that runs across the table in the middle. That’s Palo Duro. I had no idea that this existed, of course, until I picked up a brochure at the Texas Welcome Center on the border of New Mexico and Texas (Texas has great welcome centers except, like everything else in Texas, it’s all about Texas and nothing about the surrounding states!). Palo Duro is about 20 minutes southeast of Amarillo across the plains. Driving up to the park you have no idea what is in front of you until just before the entry gate when the canyon begins to open up to the east. This picture is taken driving down the road about one mile from the canyon rim. Shortly after going through the entrance gate a visitor’s center (another park complex built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the depression in 1933) marks the rim of the canyon with views to the east and southeast.
The canyon is 120 miles long and averages 800-900 feet in depth. The Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River runs through the bottom of the canyon. The area has been home to people for thousands of years and the final decisive battle of the Red River Indian Wars was fought here in 1874. By this time the US Army had adopted a brutal but effective policy throughout the West in terms of dealing with Native Americans. The mobility of the tribes made it very difficult to defeat them on the battlefield so the army targeted villages, emphasizing destroying food stores and more importantly, horses, thus effectively forcing tribes to travel on foot with no food. Starvation and disease were more effective weapons of war. On September 24, 1874, a Colonel McKenzie led his troops into the canyon and routed the villagers, capturing 1,400 horses in the process. After keeping a couple of hundred for their use, the army killed over 1,100 horses the next day as well as burning the winter food stores. This forced the Indians back on foot to the Fort Sill Reservation in Oklahoma and ended their traditional way of life forever. A series of narrow switchbacks takes the road down to the floor of the canyon, which is susceptible to flash floods. You will see that the road fords the creek several times and that there are flood markers at the crossings, warning motorists that if the water is more than 6 inches deep you should not try to cross. The river is deceptively small and can swell into a raging torrent in minutes during thunderstorms. The pictures will take you through the bottom of the canyon to the turn-around and then back. Enjoy!
It was a beautiful day to spend in the canyon and again, one of the benefits of travelling in the fall is that most people are at work and in school, so it wasn’t crowded at all. I don’t think it would be quite the same experience to crawl along this narrow road in the summer heat with the summer crowds. Obviously Palo Duro does not compare to some of the awe-inspiring canyons of the Rocky Mountain West but the fact that this scar in the earth exists in the middle of all the “flatness” that is the panhandle area is what creates its’ exceptionalism. All in all, a pleasant surprise 20 minutes from downtown Amarillo! This wraps up my time in the Amarillo area. It’s been an interesting place to explore, but my slow movement north needs to continue…
Next up: A visit with my childhood friends Festus, Chester, Miss Kitty and Marshall Dillon. Here’s a generational culture question – where am I going? The answer is Chapter 16!
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