Site of Conner Dugout
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First home in Canyon, a half-dugout, with windows at ground level. Built on survey located Christmas Day, 1887, by L. G. Conner. Location of Canyon's first post office; birthplace of Mamie Conner, first white child born in county. 1889 election to organize the county was held here. (1966)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On land he claimed on Christmas Day of 1887, L. G. Conner dug a half-dugout—a dwelling cut partly into the earth with windows at ground level—that became the first home in what would grow into Canyon, Texas. The little dugout doubled as the town's first post office and hosted the 1889 election that organized Randall County. It was also the birthplace of Mamie Conner, recorded as the first white child born in the county.
Why it matters
The Conner dugout marks the raw beginning of Panhandle settlement, when a hole in the prairie could serve at once as home, post office, and county cradle.
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Related people
- · L. G. Conner
- · Mamie Conner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Wagon Yard
Canyon, TX
From about 1890 to 1921 this Canyon wagon yard was the working headquarters for ranchmen come to town, who slept in their bedrolls or a room above the office and cooked over a campfire in the yard. It cost a dime to stable a horse and fifty cents for a man; feed and coal were for sale, water was free, and hands were hired and horses doctored on the spot.
Randall County Courthouse
Canyon, TX
This 1909 building was the second courthouse for Randall County, created in 1876 and organized in 1889 as the Texas Panhandle opened to settlement. The first courthouse was a frame house that had also served as the county's first school — and whose tin roof, the marker notes, once hosted cowboy dances. The new courthouse rose just as West Texas State University was about to open in Canyon.
Presbyterian Church Building
Canyon, TX
Built in 1926 for Canyon's growing Presbyterian congregation, this church is a refined example of Classical Revival architecture, with a two-story portico carried on giant Ionic columns, pedimented entry doors, and tall arched stained-glass windows. After serving the Presbyterians for nearly half a century, it was purchased by the First United Pentecostal Church in 1974.
Randall County
Canyon, TX
Carved from Young and Bexar territories, Randall County was created in 1876 and organized in 1889, with Canyon as its seat. It honors Horace Randall (1821–1864), a Confederate officer who was killed leading his brigade in battle. The naming reflects how Texas, in the decades after the Civil War, memorialized its Confederate dead across the map of the settling Panhandle.