Amarillo: The Story of a Western Town [Hardcover]

Paul H. Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2006

“Step into the Real Texas”—Amarillo Chamber of Commerce Amarillo, the Queen City of the Texas Panhandle, is known far beyond its immediate vicinity—the high tableland called the Llano Estacado. The famous highway Route 66 ran through the very heart of Amarillo. Alan Jackson, Emmylou Harris, Neil Sedaka, and James Durst each recorded a different song titled “Amarillo.” Named by True West magazine as one of the fifty most Western towns in America, this city of 176,000 people remains rooted in its Western past—yet at the same time Amarillo’s background and outlook have a distinctly Midwestern flavor. In this book, the first comprehensive history of Amarillo, Paul H. Carlson explores the city and its environs, from the first peoples who settled in the area to Amarillo’s current position as the marketing and commercial hub of a broad region. Through its economic and political strength and its deep cultural influences, Amarillo will likely continue to dominate much of the Texas Panhandle well into the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A professor of history at Texas Tech University, Paul H. Carlson is the author of Deep Time and the Texas High Plains and The Cowboy Way, both published by Texas Tech University Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 283 pages
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press; 1st Printing edition (December 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896725871
• ISBN-13: 978-0896725874
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,465,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amarillo by Morning - and Evening too!, April 30, 2008

By 

W. Howard "Will's Texana" (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amarillo: The Story of a Western Town (Hardcover)

Amarillo: The Story of a Western Town. By Paul H. Carlson. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006. xv, 283 pages. 53 photos, 3 maps,

Paul Carlson professes history at Texas Tech and has authored several books, some being Deep Time and the Texas High Plains, The Cowboy Way, and The Plains Indians which was translated into French. He's credentialed and applauded. You'll enjoy his Amarillo. It's the first full history of the town. It should be widely purchased. It's a good book filling a clear gap.

Early Native Americans found it important that the city rests between two rivers (the Red and the Canadian) and is near natural resources (the Alibates flint quarry). The surrounding ranchland gave it a reason for its original being, where the buffalo had previously been nourished for millennia. The influence of the JA, LIT, XIT, LS, LX, LE, Frying Pan, and T-Anchor ranches push the story as interplanetary space guilds glide in science fiction novels. But these prairie spacemen are real. The ranchers transported countless cattle along trails headed for the liquid life at Wild Horse Lake. The lake rests in a central location which was affirmed by the railroads. The city's history is strongly influenced by Mid-westerners who acclimated.

Amarillo, the Queen City of the Texas Panhandle, reigns over "The Golden Spread," encompassing the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and portions of other nearby states. To current residents at times the rest of Texas is an afterthought. In a sense Amarillo is the newest traditional city in the state, population almost 200,000.

But the story is more than trail dust, barbed wire, merchants, churches, movies, and grain silos. In 1900 the "Just Us Girls" started a library which acquired William H. Bush's collection of books; see Bibliography of the Bush/ FitzSimon/ McCarty Southwestern Collections by William Neal Howard (APL, 1979). Carlson brings a little known event to life as Georgia O'Keefe arrived to paint and the teach high school students. Then there was oil and gas, a world-class helium deposit, and the controversial Pantex Army Ordnance Plant. Interspersed therein, Carlson notes the nearby Panhandle Plains Historical Museum and the West Texas State Normal College (now Aggieland on the Plains). Carlson does not neglect local color; Buffalo Bill, J. Evetts Haley, Route 66, T. Boone Pickens and Stanley Marsh 3's buried Cadillacs have their place.

In summary, Carlson provides Amarillo at its morning, noon, and ascendancy to "Queen" of the Panhandle. Good reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars No study of Texas is complete without, March 4, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amarillo: The Story of a Western Town (Hardcover)

Amarillo, Texas is known for many things: its famous musical tributes to the state, its Texas flavor, and its regional uniqueness - yet AMARILLO: STORY OF A WESTERN TOWN represents the first book to provide a comprehensive history of the city, from its earliest explorers to its rise as a hub of Texas. Any collection strong in Texas history must have it: no study of Texas is complete without a thorough understanding of the roots and influences of Amarillo.