On the fourth day of our Panhandle trip, we stayed put in one city and saw more history and beauty than the entire trip in total. We spent the previous night in a hotel in Canyon, praying that the rain that had been unleashed in this part of the panhandle would abate enough so that we could enjoy the Palo Duro Canyon on Thursday. We woke up to heavy skies and cool temperatures, so we decided to start with the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum on the West Texas A&M campus.
The largest museum in Texas in terms of collection, and a landmark in its own right, the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum is worth a trip north all by itself. It's interactive for kids, studious and deep for the history nuts, and has so much in the way of archives that it takes a good half day or more to see it all. I went to this museum a couple of years ago when I had a speaking engagement at the university, and had wanted to go back with Randy ever since. It was even more effecting this time around, with all we had seen so far on the trip. Artifacts from the Battle of Adobe Walls and other Red River War battles are here. So are examples of agricultural ingenuity. The oil boom is front and center, and the museum's signature piece is a real oil derrick from the panhandle.
We left the museum around 1pm, and went out in search of a place to buy tickets to "Texas!," the stage musical that is performed every summer down in the Palo Duro Canyon. Downtown Canyon is lovely and charming - all the bustling liveliness of a college town, and the charm of a historical treasure. The courthouse is undergoing renovations that will include the restoration of the clock tower. We walked into a building to buy our tickets - and that building was clearly an old bank or some other institution of prestige at one point. The floors creaked and the smell of old wood and paint lingered, and you couldn't forget for a moment that you're in a place where ghosts regularly walked.
A quick lunch back at the hotel, changing our clothes to suit the warmer weather (the sun had finally poked through the clouds), and we were off to the canyon. Now, if you aren't already familiar with it, you should know that the Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. It's wide and deep, and home to flora and fauna found nowhere else in the Panhandle, thanks to Charles Goodnight's cattle. It's been home to Native Americans and Texans, shelter for Comancheros and outlaws. And every inch is beautiful, something out of a half-remembered dream.
Hiking, unfortunately, was out. One, we didn't really go prepared to hike, and two, the rains had washed out many of the roads and trails. We were quite limited in what we could see and do while down in the canyon, but it proved a great respite anyway. Like Adobe Walls two days earlier, the canyon is the kind of place where you can close your eyes, listen carefully, and feel the history surround you. Or, you can look up, and in the stillness you might hear God speaking.
A few hours later, we were able to go down to where the "Texas!" musical shows, and line up for the dinner buffet. Provided by The Big Texan, this dinner is well worth the price (and just thinking of the freshly-cooked ribeye, mashed potatoes, and peach cobbler makes me hungry all over again!). You eat outside, among the people who are attending the play with you, and it has the feeling of a family reunion. We were then treated to live music from a group called Young Country - and we Austinites do crave live music!
The play? Spectacular. If you have a chance to see, I highly recommend it.
The sky was cloudy, but it didn't rain, and we got back to the hotel kind of late. Satisfied with what we had experienced that day, we had a bit of trouble deciding upon our next course, but as you'll see, the last couple of days on our trip were just as great as the first four.
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