Amarillo
Amarillo, Potter County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Arroyo Amarillo, nearby creek given its designation by Spaniards in early days. In 1887, when the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad was building through this region, a group represented by J. T. Berry platted the town (1 Mi. W.). The founders were merchants of Colorado City (250 Mi. SE), establishing convenient trade facilities for their South Plains customers. Later (Aug. 30) that year, Potter County was organized and Amarillo was chosen county seat by 38 LX and 15 Frying Pan cowboys as electors. In 1889 heavy rains and other inducements were factors influencing residents to move to this new townsite addition promoted by J. F. Glidden and H. B. Sanborn, owners of the Frying Pan Ranch (headquarters 16 Mi. W). In 1892 Glidden traded his interest in the city for Sanborn's interest in the ranch. In the years 1892-1897, Amarillo was the largest rural shipping point for cattle in the nation. When a rail line to serve the South Plains was proposed, Amarillo and Washburn (15 Mi. SE) were rivals for the junction. Amarillo won, through efforts of city developer Sanborn. When construction began in 1898, Amarillo's future was assured: it was to be the commercial center of the Texas Panhandle. (1970) (1970).
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad pushed through the Panhandle in 1887, Colorado City merchants led by J. T. Berry platted Amarillo to serve their South Plains trade, and cowboys elected it the seat of newly organized Potter County. Ranchers J. F. Glidden and H. B. Sanborn of the Frying Pan Ranch soon lured residents to a new townsite addition, and from 1892 to 1897 Amarillo was the nation's largest rural cattle-shipping point. Sanborn's maneuvering to win a key rail junction in 1898 sealed the town's future as the commercial center of the Texas Panhandle.
Why it matters
Amarillo's rise shows how railroads, barbed-wire ranching fortunes, and cattle shipping combined to build the commercial capitals of the American plains.
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Related people
- · J. T. Berry
- · J. F. Glidden
- · H. B. Sanborn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Henry Bradley Sanborn
Amarillo, TX
A New York native, Henry Bradley Sanborn came to Texas in 1875 as sales agent for barbed-wire inventor Joseph Glidden, and together they founded the vast Frying Pan Ranch in 1881 to prove that wire fencing could tame the open range. When a rival site won the county seat, the undaunted Sanborn developed his own townsite nearby, luring residents there after heavy rains flooded the original and later securing the rail connections that guaranteed Amarillo's future. On this spot stood his home, offices, stables for matched coach horses, and even a deer park.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, The Amarillo Story
Amarillo, TX
The arrival of a railroad across the Panhandle gave rise to Amarillo, made county seat of Potter County in 1887, and for a decade the town enjoyed a trade monopoly over the South Plains, ranking as the nation's largest rural cattle-shipping point in the 1890s. When a rival routing threatened to bypass it in 1898, citizens persuaded the Santa Fe to make Amarillo the terminus of its new line; the railroad then moved its headquarters there and, by 1908, folded the town into its transcontinental main line. Branch lines followed, cementing Amarillo as the commercial hub of the High Plains.
Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, First Railroad through the Texas Panhandle
Amarillo, TX
Chartered by Fort Worth citizens in 1873 but delayed by that year's financial panic, the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway became the first railroad to cross the Texas Panhandle. Grading began in 1881 under famed engineer G. M. Dodge, and as crews pushed the rails northwest, their camps became towns—Amarillo among them, born in 1887. The line's completion in 1888 opened a through route to Denver and helped transform the old buffalo range into an economy of cattle, grain, and petroleum.
Carson County
Panhandle, TX
Carved out of the vast Texas Panhandle in the years after the Civil War, Carson County was created in 1876 and formally organized in 1888 as ranchers and railroad promoters pushed into the high plains. It took the name of Samuel Price Carson, who served as Secretary of State for the young Republic of Texas. The town of Panhandle became the county seat and, though it lost the great rail junction it was promised to nearby Amarillo, it endured as one of the region's early enduring towns and an early player in the oil and gas boom.