Panhandle, Texas
Encyclopedia
Carson County, Texas
Carson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Amarillo metropolitan area. In 2000, its population was 6,516. Carson is named for Samuel Price Carson, the first secretary of state of the Republic of Texas. The seat of the county is Panhandle. It was founded in...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 2,589 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Carson County
Carson County, Texas
Carson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Amarillo metropolitan area. In 2000, its population was 6,516. Carson is named for Samuel Price Carson, the first secretary of state of the Republic of Texas. The seat of the county is Panhandle. It was founded in...
. Panhandle is part of the Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
Metropolitan Statistical Area
Amarillo metropolitan area
The Amarillo Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area in the Texas Panhandle that covers four counties - Armstrong, Carson, Potter, and Randall...
. In July 2009 the population was estimated at 2,425.
Square House Museum
The Square House MuseumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in Panhandle, originally constructed as a dwelling on the N Bar N Ranch in Carson County, contains diorama
Diorama
The word diorama can either refer to a nineteenth century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum...
s and displays of the natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, and art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
of the Texas Panhandle
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east...
. There is the historic
Square House (the oldest building in the community), the Conway community church, a reconstructed pioneer dugout
Dugout (shelter)
A dugout or dug-out, also known as a pithouse, pit-house, earth lodge, mud hut, is a shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground. These structures are one of the most ancient types of human housing known to archeologists...
, windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
, railroad caboose
Caboose
A caboose is a manned North American rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.-Function:The caboose provided the...
, and Moody wildlife exhibit and art galleries. Restored in 1965 and opened in 1967, the museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1973. Among the exhibits is a Grant Speed
Grant Speed
Ulysses Grant Speed is a western sculptor based in Lindon in Utah County, near Provo.Speed was born in San Angelo in Tom Green County, Texas, where as a youth he concentrated on riding and roping and hence showed little evidence of his later passion for art...
sculpture of Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight
Charles Goodnight
Charles Goodnight, also known as Charlie Goodnight , was a cattle rancher in the American West, perhaps the best known rancher in Texas. He is sometimes known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle." Essayist and historian J...
.
Texas State Highway 207
State Highway 207 or SH 207 is a state Highway that runs from the Texas/Oklahoma state line south through the Texas Panhandle, ending in Post. The highway was originally designated between 1933 and 1936 between Floydada and Ralls. By 1939, the designation was extended north to Silverton and south...
. There is no admission charge.
Inside the museum is a revised quotation from Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
in the year 80 B.C.: "History is the witness . . . of time, the torch of truth, . . . the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity."
Panhandle's history has been closely tied to the railroad. City Hall is located in a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe depot
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
.
Temple Lea Houston
Temple Houston
Temple Lea Houston was the last-born child of Texas Revolutionary Sam Houston.After traveling and working in the East, Houston returned to Texas in 1877, and graduated from Baylor University with honors in 1880....
(1860–1905), the eighth and last child of the legendary Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
, built a home near Panhandle. In 1881, he was named district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
for the 35th Judicial District. He was elected to the Texas State Senate in 1884, two years before he met the minimum age requirement of twenty-six. Houston was known for favoring legislation popular with frontiersmen.
Geography
Panhandle is located at 35°20′51"N 101°22′55"W (35.347409, -101.381997).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 2.1 square miles (5.4 km²), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 2,589 people, 945 households, and 719 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,216.6 people per square mile (469.3/km²). There were 1,014 housing units at an average density of 476.5 per square mile (183.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.16% White, 0.66% African American, 0.77% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 3.86% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.96% of the population.
There were 945 households out of which 38.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.9% were non-families. 22.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.10.
In the town the population was spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 21.4% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.1 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $41,686, and the median income for a family was $50,735. Males had a median income of $38,155 versus $25,329 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $21,640. About 4.0% of families and 6.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 11.4% of those age 65 or over.