Amarillo

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. We're talking about Amarillo, county seat of Potter County, and this is a story that starts in 1887 out on the flat and windswept Texas Panhandle, where somebody decided this particular patch of earth was worth planting a town on. They founded it that year, and by 1892 it was incorporated, official and legal and ready to mean something.

Now, the name. Amarillo. You hear that word and it rolls off the tongue like it's been there forever, and in a way, it had.

The town takes its name from Arroyo Amarillo, the Spanish name of a nearby creek. That's the marker's account, and it's enough. The creek had a name, and the town borrowed it.

Some legacies work exactly like that. What grew up around that name is something else entirely. Amarillo became a transportation hub, a financial center, a cultural anchor, a medical center for the whole surrounding region.

Not bad for a place that got its start in 1887. And here's where the story gets bigger than just one city, because Amarillo sits as a gateway, and this marker lays out exactly what it's a gateway to. The Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument.

Lake Meredith. Palo Duro State Park. The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

And Boys Ranch. Five destinations, each one a world unto itself, and every road to them runs through Amarillo. Founded in 1887, incorporated in 1892, and still standin' at the crossroads of everything the Panhandle has to offer.

That's not a small thing. That's the whole point.

What the marker says

County seat, Potter County; founded in 1887. Incorporated 1892. Named for Arroyo Amarillo, Spanish name of nearby creek. Transportation, financial, cultural, and medical center. Gateway to: Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument, Lake Meredith, Palo Duro State Park, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Boys Ranch. (1965).