High Plains Drifting
These leisurely drives explore a part of Texas where the vistas are spectacular, the history is rich, and the natives will want you to sit and talk a spell. Best of all, there’s elbow room to spare.
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Leaving town, veer northeast toward the Oklahoma border on U.S. 60 for eight miles, turning north at Glazier onto Texas Highway 305, a lightly traveled, shoulderless two-lane. After fourteen miles you’ll stumble upon Lipscomb (population: 48), tucked in the woods just east of the highway. Once one of the largest communities in the Panhandle, Lipscomb almost dried up and blew away after the railroad came into the region but passed it by. Present-day Lipscomb is dominated by what appears to be the loneliest county courthouse in Texas, at least around sunset, when wild turkeys pick their way across the lawn. But the town started reinventing itself four years ago, when Debby Opdyke and Jan Luna opened the Naturally Yours gallery in the old bank building (104 E. Main, 806-862-2900), where pastel artist Amy Winton’s landscapes are on display during July.
Opdyke and Luna also revived a forgotten Great Plains social tradition by building an open-air dance platform next door to the gallery, where they stage community dances every month from May through October. A midsummer dance is scheduled for Saturday, July 17, with music provided by Frankie McWhorter, a former member of Bob Wills’s Texas Playboys. A $7 catered meal is served before the dance at seven (fried turkey, potatoes, and biscuits are on the menu for July). During the dance, Luna dishes up cowboy cobbler from Dutch ovens for $2.
Janie Hathoot followed Opdyke and Luna into Lipscomb in 1998, opening her Yellow House Studio and Gallery (806-862-2608) in a restored boarding house at the corner of Oak Street and Third Avenue in “uptown Lipscomb,” a couple of blocks off the square. In conjunction with the dances, Hathoot offers a gourmet dinner on Friday evening ($25, reservations required), accommodations in a three-room guest house ($50 a room, including breakfast), and an open-house gallery show on Saturday afternoon. July’s visiting artist is Brian Asher, who specializes in pen-and-ink drawings of men, horses, and cattle, subjects reflective of his day job as a working cowboy in Guthrie.
Lipscomb’s main attraction, needless to say, is solitude and quiet, allowing contemplation of a way of life that has all but disappeared. “People have gotten so far away from entertaining themselves,” Opdyke says. “We provide the setting. After that you have to take it upon yourself to say ‘hi’ to your neighbor and create your own entertainment.”
From town, backtrack south for three miles, then turn west onto FM 1920 for five miles, when it turns into FM 3260. Continue west on FM 3260 for nine more miles, cutting through magnificent ranch country dominated by grasslands and mesas smoothed by wind erosion, until you reach Texas Highway 23. Go north briefly on Highway 23, then turn west onto FM 3260 for ten miles. If you need water to cool off, pull over at Wolf Creek Park (806-435-4559), a county facility that offers camping areas, swimming, hiking trails, boating ramps, and other amenities, including 137 RV hookups. The park’s Lobo Trading Post serves hot meals and stocks supplies.
From Wolf Creek, continue west on what is now County Road U for eight miles until it rejoins U.S. 83, then proceed north on U.S. 83 for thirty miles to Perryton, a farming community dominated by grain elevators in the “Wheatheart of the Nation.” At the north end of town I stopped in at the Museum of the Plains (1200 N. Main, 806-435-6400), where Sarah Thompson was cataloging everything from bottle collections to vintage automobiles, all stuffed into three large warehouses. She led me to an exhibit about Harold Courson and the Buried City. In 1907 archaeologists first uncovered the site of a large Indian settlement along three miles of the south bank of nearby Wolf Creek, with communal structures and an extensive irrigation system. Fourteen years ago, Courson, a rancher-oilman who owns the land where the Buried City is located, designated portions of it as an archaelogical conservation easement, the first in Texas. Three site excavations are in progress elsewhere on the creek. If you decide to stay over in Perryton, there are five motels in town.
From Perryton it’s only 46 miles to Liberal, Kansas, via the Oklahoma Panhandle and U.S. 83. Or you can head back south on U.S. 83 for seven miles, picking up Texas Highway 70 and continuing south toward Pampa for twenty miles to the intersection of FM 281. Either continue south on 70 for five miles for an inspiring vista from the north rim of the Canadian breaks,or turn west on FM 281 for 21 miles to the turnoff to Adobe Walls, the site of more than one Anglo-Indian battle where the tide turned against the native residents.
There are few signs directing you to Adobe Walls, so be on the lookout for County Road 21, where you turn south. After three miles, turn left again on County Road P for 8.8 miles (it’s a dirt road for the last 6.5 miles). I relied on my trusty copy of The Roads of Texas (Shearer Publishing) to get me there. The road ends in a small protected valley just below the Caprock, the site of two significant fights that turned out to be defining events in the conflict between the red man and the white man. At the first battle of Adobe Walls, the largest Indian battle during the Civil War, the federals, led by Kit Carson, came up short against the native home team. According to the monument, the second battle, on June 27, 1874, pitted 700 “picked” warriors from the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne nations led by Quanah Parker against 28 buffalo hunters, who overcame long odds to score a victory, the first in the series of victories that are collectively called the Red River War. The site is surrounded by the Turkey Track Ranch, which has No Trespassing signs posted around its perimeter, an ironic twist considering whose property this was 150 years ago. A hundred yards away is a second marker, which commemorates the Indian fighters who perished in the 1874 battle. “They died for that which makes life worth living on the Plains which they enjoyed for generations,” reads the monument.
From Adobe Walls, return to FM 281 and head west. After eleven miles, turn onto Texas Highway 207 and head south to Stinnett (six miles) and Borger (eleven more miles), where the Hutchinson County Historical Museum (618 N. Main, 806-273-0130) has a detailed exhibit about the Adobe Walls battles and the various tribes that once lived in the area. From Borger, head west on Texas Highway 136 to Fritch and the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, gateway to the largest lake on the Texas High Plains, a dammed-up portion of the Canadian River.
If there’s enough daylight left, take a guided tour of the Alibates National Monument, six miles south of Fritch (you need to arrange for the tour in advance: 806-857-3151); it commemorates the area’s extensive flint deposits, which were prized by Native Americans across the continent. A six thousand—acre grass fire last summer exposed numerous ancient firepits and ruins, which park rangers will gladly point out. Just don’t take home any souvenirs.
From Fritch, you can head south and west on 136 for 38 miles to Amarillo, crossing parts of the original Santa Fe Trail. Or, if you want to continue on to New Mexico or Colorado, loop back around the lake via FM 687, just east of Fritch off 136, to Sanford, where you pick up FM 1319 northwest for 8 miles, then turn onto FM 1913 and proceed north for 3 miles to Texas Highway 152. Head west on 152 toward Dumas, 20 miles away, where you continue westbound on U.S. 87 for 39 miles to Dalhart, Presidio’s opposite as the cool spot of Texas. The town goes full-tilt cowboy the first weekend of August for XIT days, celebrating the fabled ranch with a rodeo, wingding, and free barbecue for more than 20,000 folks. The XIT Museum downtown (108 E. Fifth Street, 806-249-5390) rates a visit, too.
Get Your Kicks…
TEXOLA TO GLENRIO: A 178-MILE straight shot on Interstate 40—with side trips in search of the Mother Road of America, Route 66—that can easily be done in a day.
Although 92 percent of the Texas portion of the famous highway still exists, most of it was converted to frontage road for I-40. It isn’t much fun to drive, and none of the stops in the Panhandle rivals the neon luminescence of Tucumcari or other Route 66 towns in New Mexico, Arizona, and California. But as flat and boring as Texas 66 might seem, just follow the brown Historic Route 66 signs off the interstate and you’ll find plenty of highway history about the storied road. Drive it long enough and you half-expect George Maharis and Martin Milner to pass you in their ‘vette.
The Texas portion of Route 66 began at Texola, across the Oklahoma line, but the first significant town on the highway was Shamrock. At the crossroads of I-40 and U.S. 83, it’s a bustling place today, but much of the growth has occurred to the north of downtown, away from the four-lane divided part of 66. Even though a number of motels have been remodeled, the strip has not been quite the same since the U Drop Inn Cafe closed last year. However, Leah’s downtown (100 S. Main, 806-256-2644) is highly recommended for homemade soups and sandwiches, pies, and fresh cherry limeades.
There’s more to glean in McLean, twenty miles west at exit 141, where the old highway splits into two one-way streets, with several blocks of the town sandwiched between them. Within the city limits are the Mclean-Alanreed Area Museum (116 N. Main, 806-779-2731), with exhibits detailing the World War II prison camp in town that housed German POWs, the first Phillips 66 service station in Texas (Route 66 West, two blocks west of Main Street), and the remodeled Cactus Inn (101 Pine Street), a functioning relic from 66’s glory days.
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