Tex Randall
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The 47-foot, seven-ton cowboy statue, known as Tex Randall, is considered a Texas icon. Designer and builder Harry Wheeler created the cowboy in 1959 as a roadside phenomenon to welcome travelers to his Corral curio shop on U.S. Highway 60 west to New Mexico. The giant cowboy relates to the western heritage of the Texas panhandle as well as symbolizing the state of Texas. William Harry Wheeler (1914-1997) was born in Hartley, Texas in the panhandle and died in Amarillo. He was a teacher by profession, but in the 1950s, he sought a way to supplement his income and opened a curio shop along the highway. After three years, he moved the shop across the highway and began his masterpiece, the Big Cowboy. For ten months, Wheeler worked with six-inch wire mesh, rebar and concrete. A friend helped weld the pipe and rebar to the frame. The concrete cowboy was covered with burlap to protect it from the elements. Levi-Strauss made the pants and Amarillo Awning made the shirt, a surface total of 1,440 square feet. Dressing the statue was completed by hand-stitching the clothes in back with sailboat thread, and the shirt was decorated with sheet aluminum buttons covered with vinyl. In true Texas style, the cowboy was adorned with a Stetson-style hat. Wheeler soon added a six-room motel for visitors. Due to reconstruction of the highway, the tourist trade at his shop declined. Wheeler sold the property in 1963. Harry Wheeler's vision, dedication and attention to detail sealed his creation as a landmark and tourist attraction. The giant cowboy became Wheeler's lasting contribution to Texas heritage and history. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Giant roadside figures like Tex Randall are folk monuments of the mid-century American car culture, when the open highway itself became a stage for outsized homegrown showmanship.
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Related people
- · Harry Wheeler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Randall County
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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.