Amarillo: The Story of a Western Town

“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.