OUt and About The Panhandle - A My Town Monday Post

I don't want to turn My Town Monday into a weekly lesson on western heritage, but that is the history of my area so I will have to regale tales of Cowboys and Indians fairly often or I will run out of material. Still I'm going to try and break things up so the posts don't get tiresome. Next week, I'll tell ya'll about the Battle Of Adobe Walls, but for this rendition of My Town Monday I'm gonna do a few capsule size looks at four area towns. One each direction.

Dumas, Texas lies about 50 miles north of Amarillo. That might seem like a long way between towns to some of you but the two are only separated by the mostly dry Canadian River and no other towns. Dumas is pronounced Do-Muss not the giggle producing Dumb Ass, though we called them the DumbAss Demons when we battled their high school in sporting events. The song Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas is said to have been written about the town though Dumas, Arkansas makes the same claim. Here is a video clip of that song.

JWW and the Prospectors - Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas


Happy, Texas lies 35 miles to the South of Amarillo. A few years back their was a movie titled Happy, Texas though it was not filmed in the town and the loclas all seemed to hate the movie. About the only thing accurate in the film was the sing on the outskirts of town that reads ... WELCOME TO HAPPY, TEXAS -- THE TOWN WITHOUT A FROWN. Happy is also the default location on google weather.

To the east almost to the Oklahoma border lies the tiny town of Twitty, Texas. Six miles off of I-40 the place had a population of 100 in 1930. In 1980, its population had remained fairly stable with an estimate of 116, but by 1990 the number of residents fell to sixty. The population dropped to 12 in the 2000 census. It's claim to fame? Once upon a time there was a singer who was told he needed a name change. He couldn't think of anything so he reached for a map and founf the names of Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Tx. Conway Twitty recorded many a country song before his death in 1993.

Now we go 23 miles to the west of Amarillo to the town of Wildorado,Texas. Actually, there are only three towns in Texas that are what I'd consider due west of Amarillo. I picked the middle one mostly because I like the name. I always thought a song should be written about the wild west of Wildorado though that description might me stretching it especially these days. Though in the dist bowl era the bank was robbed several times. Actually, a more accurate song would be called Windy Wildorado as nearby is the Wildorado Wind Farm which is the home of 70 wind turbine generators and here are a few facts from an article written prior to the wind farm's completion.

The Wildorado Wind Ranch will be the largest single wind power facility yet to be built in the Southwest Power Pool serving parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

If you'd like to participate in My Town Mondays just write up piece about your current or former hometown, or even about somewhere you just happen know an interesting fact about. Then let me know and I'll link you up. to read my collection of my town monday psots click on the my town label at the bottom of this post.

To Visit Other My Town Monday Bloggers Check Back Here For The Updated List of This Weeks Players

Lyzzydee -- Welwyn Garden City, England

Patti Abbott -- Detroit, Michigan

Debra -- Village of Peninsula, Ohio

Clair Dickson -- Brighton, Michigan

Lois Karlin (Women of Mystery) -- Warwick, New York

DebbieLou -- The rudest places in England.

Samantha Winston -- Houdan, France

Barrie Summy -- San Diego,California

Linda McLaughlin -- San Clemente, California

Mary Nix -- Olmstead Falls, Ohio

Barbara Martin -- Toronto, Canada