Randall County, on the Llano Estacado near the center of the Panhandle, is bordered by Potter County to the north, Carson County to the northeast, Armstrong County to the east, Swisher County to the southeast, Castro County to the southwest, Deaf Smith County to the west, and Oldham County to the northwest. Randall County has an area of 922 square miles that extends over an eastward sloping tableland broken by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, which flows through Palo Duro Canyon, and its tributaries, Palo Duro and Tierra Blanca creeks. The elevation is 3,000 to 3,800 feet above mean sea level; the canyons range from 50 to 1,750 feet in depth. Fossil remains of prehistoric animals have been found in both Palo Duro and Cita canyons.

Palo Duro Canyon is the most spectacular and scenic landscape feature in the Panhandle of Texas. The Spanish name Palo Duro means “hardwood” and refers to the hardwood shrubs and trees found in the canyon. The head of the canyon lies 15 miles southeast of Amarillo in Randall County, and the canyon extends sixty miles southeast through Armstrong County and into Briscoe County. The steep sides of Palo Duro Canyon consist of bright, banded layers of orange, red, brown, yellow, grey, maroon, and white rocks that represent four different geologic periods and a time span of more than 240 million years.

Evidence of human habitation in the area extends back some 10,000 years to Paleo-Indian cultures. During the historical period, various nomadic Plains Indian tribes, including the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne, hunted buffalo in the area and utilized the canyons as winter camping grounds. In the 1870s the slaughter of the buffalo and the battle of Palo Duro Canyon drove the Plains Indians from the area and opened it up to settlement. Randall County was separated from Bexar County in 1876 and named for Horace Randal, Confederate brigadier general killed at the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry, Arkansas, in 1864; a clerical error doubled the l in the name.

Settlement began in 1876 when Charles Goodnight drove 1,600 cattle into Palo Duro Canyon and established his Old Home Ranch as the first JA Ranch headquarters. JA Ranch is the oldest privately owned cattle operation in the Panhandle. The following year Leigh R. Dyer built his log ranch headquarters, the oldest surviving building in the northern 36 counties of Texas, near the junction of Palo Duro and Tierra Blanca creeks.

The county was unorganized from 1876 to 1889 and was attached successively to Jack County (1876-79), Wheeler County (1879-81), Oldham County (1881-83), Donley County (1883-85), Oldham County again (1885-89), and Potter County (1889). At first, county organization was contested by the big ranching element led by Lee John Hutson, Goodnight’s brother-in-law and manager of the T Anchor Ranch, who sought to restrict the flow of homesteaders into the area. However, 200 petitioners led by Lincoln G. Conner successfully arranged for an election, held in July 1889 at Conner’s dugout. Canyon City (later Canyon), which Conner had laid out earlier that year, was elected county seat, with 45 qualified voters participating. Six of the new county officers were T Anchor employees.

From the beginning, ranching established itself as the county’s major industry. Fenced pastures replaced the open range after 1881, registered Herefords were first brought into the area in 1883, and cattle numbered 35,000 in 1900. Farming grew more slowly. Transportation developments at the turn of the century greatly aided the development of Randall County. The Pecos and Northern Texas Railway built westward through the county from Amarillo in 1898 and helped bring settlers and a market for crops; in 1910 the Santa Fe completed the Llano Estacado Railway from Floydada to Canyon. As a result the decade 1900 to 1910 was a time of dramatic growth for Randall County, as the population increased by over 300 percent to 3,312 inhabitants

Better farming techniques, increased use of irrigation, and such government work programs as the Civilian Conservation Corps are said to have helped Randall County weather the depression and Dust Bowl years. The county prospered and modernized in the 1940s. By 1950, 86 percent of the county’s 667 farms had electricity, and 84 percent had tractors; mules had practically disappeared. . No significant mineral resources have been discovered in the county. In 2000 the county economy primarily consisted of agribusiness, education, tourism, and some manufacturing.

Higher education and tourism have been important in the growth of the county. Amarillo College has operated since 1897. West Texas State Normal College (now West Texas A&M University) opened in Canyon in 1910 and enrolled 6,193 students in 1990. Palo Duro Canyon, with Palo Duro Canyon State Park (deeded to the state in 1933), is an important attraction. Each summer the outdoor drama Texas draws large numbers of people to the park. In Canyon the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum provides an important tourist attraction, and Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1939, provides recreational opportunities in the southwestern part of the county.

(The information above is excerpted from the Handbook of Texas, an encyclopedia published by the Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook can be accessed online at www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online. Copies of the two-volume set may be obtained by contacting the TSHA at 512-232-1513.)