Dreamland Cemetery
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally named Canyon City Cemetery, this burial ground has served the nearby community since early in Canyon's history. In 1891, S.W. Kelley deeded property to Randall County for cemetery use. That same year, the first burials occurred, for William E. McElroy and for Jerry Adams, an African American cowboy who died during a cattle drive. The Civic Improvement League changed the cemetery's name to Dreamland in 1909, and additional acreage was added to the property in 1932 and 1963. Many early pioneers of Randall County, who were mostly farmers and ranchers, are buried here. A number of noted county figures are also interred, including L.G. Connor, the founder of the Canyon City (now Canyon) and prominent financier L.T. Lester. Other prominent early Randall County residents buried here include Judge Burney Slack, E.D. Harrell, John and Margaret Knight, C.R. Burrow and Clyde Warwick. More recent burials include J.A. Hill and J.P. Cornette, West Texas A&M Presidents; Hattie Anderson, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum founder; Margaret Harper, creator of the Palo Duro Canyon outdoor drama "Texas"; and musician Buddy Knox. Others represented here include veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War. Randall County maintained the property until 1957, transferring operations to concerned citizens who formed the Dreamland Cemetery Association. Today, the association continues to care for the historic Dreamland Cemetery, which still serves the residents of Randall County and remains as a testament to the early settlers of Canyon. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Opened in 1891 as Canyon City Cemetery on land deeded by S.W. Kelley, this Panhandle burial ground received its first two interments that year—including Jerry Adams, an African American cowboy who died on a cattle drive. The Civic Improvement League renamed it Dreamland in 1909, and it grew to hold the founders, financiers, educators, and cultural figures of Randall County, from town founder L.G. Connor to Palo Duro drama creator Margaret Harper and rockabilly musician Buddy Knox. A citizens' association has cared for the grounds since 1957.
Why it matters
Dreamland Cemetery is a roll call of the ranchers, pioneers, and civic builders who settled the Texas Panhandle, from the open-range cattle era into the twentieth century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · L.G. Connor
- · Buddy Knox
- · Margaret Harper
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Randall County
Canyon, TX
Created in 1876 and named for Confederate general Horace Randal, this Panhandle county was first settled in 1877 by rancher Leigh Dyer, brother-in-law of the famed Charles Goodnight, who brought the first cattle to the region. Organized in 1889 with Canyon as its seat, it grew into the home of West Texas State University, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, and Palo Duro Canyon.
Sam Wood Cabin
Canyon, TX
Sam Wood raised this cabin in 1887 at Hog Town, now a Panhandle ghost town. A Union Civil War veteran, buffalo hunter, and Indian scout, Wood was father of the bride in the first marriage recorded in the Panhandle, held at Fort Elliott in 1877, and his cabin once sheltered six families during an Indian scare. Moved and restored in 1954, it survives as a rare relic of frontier life on the high plains.
Tex Randall
Canyon, TX
In 1959, along U.S. Highway 60 west toward New Mexico, teacher-turned-curio-shop-owner Harry Wheeler set out to lure travelers with something unmissable: a 47-foot, seven-ton concrete cowboy. Over ten months he shaped wire mesh, rebar and concrete into the figure, then dressed it in Levi-Strauss pants and a hand-stitched shirt topped with a Stetson-style hat. Highway reconstruction thinned his tourist trade and he sold the property in 1963, but 'Tex Randall' endured as a beloved roadside landmark of the Texas Panhandle.
T Anchor Ranch
Canyon, TX
In the fall of 1877, cattlemen drove some 400 head to Spring Draw and raised a two-room log cabin, seeding one of the Panhandle's great open-range operations. Under the firm of Gunter, Munson & Summerfield, cowboys strung the area's first barbed wire around 240,000 acres and, in 1882, moved more than 10,600 cattle in what was called the largest drive on record. Through strikes, drought and blizzard the T Anchor endured, and when Randall County organized in 1889 six of its first officers were ranch hands, before the land was broken into smaller farms and ranches after 1902.