Tours of Texas: Palo Duro Canyon and the 287 Corridor

We just can't seem to get enough of small town Texas! This time we took a drive up the US 287 corridor, a drive we've made many times in the past. As part of our "stop and smell the roses" plan, we stopped in the small towns along the way.

Our first stop was Decatur, which is the county seat of Wise County.

Their motto is the "Eighter from Decatur". That's because when the Fort Worth & Denver railway came through, the laborers would shoot dice. Eights were good. One of the guys shouted "Ada from Decatur" for good luck when he rolled the dice. That became "Eighter from Decatur" and the town adopted the saying as a fun motto.

This the Wise County Courthouse. You can see that clock tower from most places in town. It's cool and under construction. That makes me a happy camper. I like that they're into preservation.

This is what is left of the Wise County Historical Museum. It used to be the Decatur Baptist College, the first two-year college in Texas, founded in 1892. Can you believe it was co-ed in 1892? In 1965, the college moved and became Dallas Baptist College (now Dallas Baptist University). In 1967, the Wise County Historical Society took it over and made it a museum. Sadly, in 2023, the building caught fire and everything was destroyed.

This is the Waggoner mansion called El Castile. Daniel Waggoner was a cattle rancher who made his home here in Decatur. The house was built in 1883 and was in the Waggoner family until 1942. It's sits high on a hill and is surrounded by 13.5 acres of land. It has 16 rooms, 8 fireplaces and stained glass windows. It's privately owned but I don't think anyone lives there. It's too bad they don't sell it to the Texas Historical Commission so they can make it a museum. I'd go.

You can't go on a road trip and not stop at all the cool roadside attractions. I've wanted to stop in Bowie for a while. It's home to...

...The World's Largest Bowie Knife? Yup. That's it. I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I mean if you're gonna build the largest Bowie knife, I say go big or go home. 

Next stop? Henrietta Texas!

Henrietta is the county seat of Clay County and they have this lovely courthouse. There was not much going on in Henrietta on a Wednesday morning.

Maybe it was because their Clay County Museum, housed in the old Clay County Jail, was closed. The left side was the home of the Sheriff and the right side was the jail. You can see the bars on the windows and the door. I hope there were bars on the door between the home and the jail as well. Still, it was a cool little town.

Our next stop was in Wichita Falls. It's the county seat of Wichita County. Those letters are for Wichita Falls, Texas in case you were thinking something else. Wichita Falls is the home of Midwestern State University, part of the Texas Tech system. They have a cool little art museum on campus that is free.

Wichita Falls had a cool courthouse built in 1883 but they outgrew it and in 1916 built this cool building. Nice, right?

Then sometime in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, they "remodeled". That cool building from 1916 was covered in concrete and glass and made to look like this. Yikes! They should restore it back to it's original look. But that's just my personal opinion that nobody seems to ask for.

Rumor has it that Bonnie and Clyde hid out in rooms above the River Grocery and Market. I was surprised that there wasn't a historical marker here but I guess they don't want to hype that murderous couple. It was built in 1925 with the grocery store on the first floor and boarding rooms on the top floor. The grocery store closed some time in the 1990s and the building sat vacant. Now it's the Neon Spur BBQ.

This is the Newby-McMahon Building, aka The World's Littlest Skyscraper. Built in 1919, J.D McMahon and Pat Newby convinced investors to fund $200,000 for an oil storage building claiming it would be a large, modern skyscraper with storage capacity for oil. This is what they got, much to the embarrassment of the investors. This building is 4-stories tall and barely had room for one storage tank.

Next on the list was Vernon, Texas aka Bacon City USA. Why? Because Wright brand bacon was founded there in 1922. These two guys started curing bacon in the back of their grocery store on Main Street in Vernon. It was thicker cut and became so popular they had to move to a larger location.

One hundred years later, Wright Bacon (now owned by Tyson) is still at it. They have this "bacon strip" running down Main Street in tribute. I LOVE bacon! 

You know who else is from Vernon, Texas? Roy Orbison!

This is the Wilbarger County Courthouse in the county seat of Vernon! They have a historical museum and we hustled our stumps to get there before it closed only to find that it was only open by appointment. What? Who makes an appointment? It was more of a disappointment.

Next was Quanah named for Quanah Parker, Chief of the Comanches. Cynthia Parker was abducted during a Comanche Indian Raid in 1836 when she was 9. She was raised by the Comanches and married their chief. She's the mom of Quanah Parker. She was "rescued" in 1860 and forced her back into society but she didn't want to go.

The town of Quanah was organized in 1885 as a stop on the Fort Worth & Denver Railway that basically went up the 287 corridor from Fort Worth to Denver (hence the name). It became the county seat of Hardeman county in 1890.  The town was named for Quanah Parker because he was well known and respected across the region. This is the Hardeman County Courthouse. 

This is the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway depot museum. It was obviously the train depot (a train still goes by but no longer stops). Most times, I like these county museums. They kind of give you the story of the town. This one was a bit of a jumble. Still, it was free and definitely worth a stop. Just being inside the building itself was interesting.

This is the Hardeman County Jail. You could potentially go inside but they couldn't find the key. Next time maybe. It was pretty quiet in Quanah on Thursday morning.

Next up was Childress. John is the "I"!

Childress County Courthouse. Nothing was happening at the courthouse. I don't even think we saw any people in Childress. What do people do in these small towns? 

I'll tell you what they're not doing. They're not going to the Childress County Historical Museum located in the old post office. They were closed too! Ugh! How are people supposed to visit your museum if you're closed? Just for the record, I did check in advance. According to their website, they should have been open.

Memphis is the next town on the road to Amarillo. It's the county seat of Hall County. 

The Hall County courthouse was built in 1923 and is in the process of being restored. I'm hoping that means just fixing what needs repairing vs. a remodel like what happened in Wichita Falls. In Memphis, the whole area was under construction. Roads were closed and the town square was empty but for construction vehicles and workers.

This photo does not do the church justice. It's so pretty. It's the First Presbyterian Church of Memphis built in 1890. They must have had a large congregation to afford a lovely building like this one.

As we were trying to find our way out of Memphis, we came across the old Hall County Jail, which is now "lodging". I would have thought it was always some kind of "lodging" just a matter of who. The jail was built in 1915 replacing the earlier jail from 1891. It stopped functioning as a jail in the mid-1990s. Now, you too, can sleep in a restored jail cell! Uh, pass.

Clarendon was the next town. I like the mural that's right off 287. I wish all the small towns had something like this. I think they are fun.

Clarendon is the county seat of Donley County and they have this castle like courthouse. While I was walking around taking photos, I met this little old man. He was so cute. He said he would have walked around with me but he couldn't keep up. I told him to wait in the car.  Ha ha! Just kidding. It wasn't John. It really was a sweet old man who was sitting outside his house not far from the courthouse.

Our last stop of the day was in Goodnight, Tx at the Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch. It's a historic site run by the Texas Historical Commission. They do such a great job of maintaining the house and telling you the story. We've driven by this place so many times, I can't believe I never realized it was there.

These are "the girls". Charles and MaryAnn Goodnight kept and bred Buffalo. These girls are probably descendants of the original herd.

Palo Duro Canyon! This was the ultimate goal of our trip. It was really pretty and we got lucky with great weather. They have these little cabins built into the rock that you can rent. Um, no thank you. It's cool in theory but the reality is you're staying in a rock without access to...stuff.

The photo of the Canyon really doesn't do it justice. It was magnificent.

There were several places to hike and several levels. This particular hill had rocks balanced on other rocks and tons of color.

We hiked part of the way out to Lighthouse Rock, which is the photo you always see in relation to Palo Duro Canyon. 

That's Lighthouse Rock itself. It reminded me a little of the World's Largest Bowie Knife, not as big as I thought it would be but then we're still pretty far away. I assume the hike takes you right up to it and then, lookout! 

There were several of these formations called "Spanish Skirts" because they flare out like a skirt. They are so pretty. Once again the photo doesn't do it justice.

Our last hike was through the painted rocks. This was a pretty trail. We had fun there. It wasn't terribly crowded. We found a lovely picnic area and ate our lunch. A great day.

The town right outside of Palo Duro Canyon and the county seat of Randall County is appropriately named...Canyon! This is their gorgeous courthouse. It was built in 1908. In 1945, the clock tower was removed and then in 1971, oh no! They "remodeled" and it looked like a bomb shelter. Luckily, in 2010, the whole thing was restored, including the clock tower. Whew!

Once again, when traveling to these places, you have to stop for the roadside attractions. This is 47 foot tall statue is called Tex Randall and he was built in 1959. He's wearing Levi's actually made by Levi Strauss. He sits on US 60 and welcomes people to Canyon, Texas

If you want to feel good about where you live, check out Tulia, Texas. I have enjoyed seeing most of the small towns that we go through. They all have character or history or something. Tulia just seemed terribly worn out. It made me think of a 30-year-old woman that looked 60.

This is the Tulia Depot, the nicest building in town. It's at the end of a dirt road by the railroad tracks. It's not in service anymore. It was built in 1916 after the first depot here burned. You wouldn't even know it was there if you weren't looking for it.

At the other end of Broadway Street is the Swisher County courthouse. It was built in 1909 but then in 1962, someone decided to "modernize" it. Good grief. We did not stay long in Tulia.

Plainview was our next stop. I like this mural. Plainview is an equally small town, like Tulia, but this town still has an element of hope. It's still cheerful.

This is the Hale County Courthouse built in 1910. I like it! This one replaced an earlier courthouse that was built in 1890. That courthouse was bought by a doctor and turned into a pharmacy. That must have been a small courthouse. It has since been demolished.

This is the Santa Fe Depot in Plainview, Texas. It was built in 1903. The first train stopped here in 1906. Passenger rail service stopped in the 1960s. They still have freight service here. Like I said, what a difference about 40 miles makes. This town, while not busy on a Saturday had a much more alive feeling that the previous town.

The last town on our journey was Lubbock. When we checked into our hotel, the desk clerk asked why we were here. There's nothing here, he said. Not totally true. I will say this, Lubbock is about two things: Buddy Holly and Texas Tech University.

The Buddy Holly Center is the keeper of the legend that is Buddy Holly. He's the one who put Lubbock on the map. He was born in 1936 and was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1959, the "Day the Music Died". He was only 22, which is amazing to me. His career was 18 months long. What if he had lived? What marvelous music would he have created? Unfortunately, no pictures inside.

The crosswalks are the glasses. That is so cool. I'm glad they haven't been painted over yet. If you have a chance to go out there and see the museum, it's very interesting. We also went to his graveside to pay our respects.

The Buddy Holly Center is on Crickets Ave (the name of his band) and Buddy Holly Avenue goes all the way to the courthouse. According to our desk clerk at the hotel, "His name is on everything" as it should be.

The Buddy Holly Center is partially in this old Fort Worth and Denver Southern Plains Railroad depot. It was built in 1928 and then abandoned by 1953. Now, it's part of this amazing museum.

In that area is a place called Depot Alley (because of the railroad depot - in case you were wondering). I like that this Coca-Cola mural advertises that the drink comes in sterilized bottles. That's the first one I've seen like that.

The rest of the town is all about Texas Tech University. John wanted to know if this was Yosemite Sam. It's the Red Raider! Guns Up!

We walked around the campus some and it's gorgeous. Everyone (and I mean everyone) wears red and black. Usually, something with Tech on it but if not, then definitely the colors. People could tell we weren't from there just by looking at us.

They had two cool museums on campus (both free). This was at the National Ranching Heritage Museum. It's an old Wells Fargo Stagecoach. This was how you traveled back in the old days, crammed in this little box with six other people bumping along unpaved roads smelling the horses and the people next to you for days or weeks. Think about that next time you have to ride in the middle seat on a 3-hour flight.

The other museum was the Museum of Texas Tech University. It has a variety of things like dinosaur bones, a fashion exhibit or art, like this Georgia O'Keefe. For some reason, I thought it would be more about the university but this was better. It has a little of everything.

In addition to being the birthplace of Buddy Holly and the home of Texas Tech University, Lubbock is also the county seat of Lubbock County. This is the third county courthouse. The first was built in 1891 and was cool. It looked like a big ranch house. I'm sure they outgrew that building and in 1916, they built a new courthouse that was beautiful and full of character. It was demolished in 1968. This bland looking building was built in 1950.

My only complaint about Lubbock was that all the restaurants, including the one in our hotel, were closed on Sunday. Seriously? What are people supposed to eat? Luckily, we were saved by Chili's. They are always open.

What a fun road trip. The drive was interesting and we got to see parts of Texas that we'd never been to and to explore parts we'd only driven past. So many towns and so little time!

Stay tuned for our next adventure...Kansas!