The city itself arrived with the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway in 1887. A tent camp on the right-of-way grew into a townsite platted by J.T. Berry beside Amarillo Lake — called Wild Horse Lake by the cowboys — and on August 30, 1887 it won the Potter County seat election. Two years later, after flooding soaked the low ground, Henry B. Sanborn — partner of barbed-wire magnate Joseph F. Glidden and remembered as the Father of Amarillo — moved the town to higher ground, and the boom began: by the 1890s Amarillo was shipping more cattle than any point on the planet, over 100,000 head a year.
The twentieth century layered on the legends. Route 66 came through in 1926, and the San Jacinto stretch along Sixth Street — art deco and Spanish Revival storefronts, now a historic district of antiques and dining — became one of the Mother Road's marquee runs. Helium discovered in the Cliffside gas field made Amarillo the Helium Capital of the World, with the federal helium plant opening in 1929. Oil and gas, ranching and meatpacking kept the Panhandle's capital growing — and country fans the world over know the city's name from the rodeo standard “Amarillo by Morning.”
Why People Visit Amarillo Texas
- Drive a stretch of historic Route 66 through the Sixth Street Historic District, with vintage storefronts, antiques, and diners.
- Visit Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the "Grand Canyon of Texas" and the second-largest canyon in the country.
- Tour the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum, honoring the West's working horse.
- See Cadillac Ranch, the famous row of nose-down Cadillacs along Interstate 40.
- Stop at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, a Route 66 icon of Panhandle cattle country.
