Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo Texas is a great place to find all kinds of interesting jobs, incredible natural sights and fun things to do when you don't feel like a long hike. Aside from having several different theaters all over town, Amarillo is close to several natural parks including the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, second in size only to the Grand Canyon. The area even features some creative public art installations like the Cadillac Ranch and the Dynamite Museum, where road signs are put up all over Amarillo with random pictures and odd messages on them.

Amarillo is a city that has culture to spare. Aside from an annual cowboy exhibition that does everything from demonstrations of lasso technique to serving authentic chuck wagon chow, the city features a zoo, and all kinds of annual festivals. There is even a Pharmacy Museum dedicated to the history of the pharmaceutical arts. Amarillo is so unforgettable, people even write songs about it like "Amarillo by Morning", by Paul Fraser and Terry Stafford or "Is This the Way to Amarillo", by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. They even filmed parts of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in Amarillo, which in itself almost makes the city a holy place.

Amarillo has a lot to offer those who enjoy city life as well as the outdoors. It has something to appeal to everyone's senses. The city is known for its ambient social atmosphere and its lively residents.

Amarillo History

Amarillo was established in 1887 when Saebre Shadowblood decided a well-watered site near freight and railroad access would be a good place for marketing and transporting cattle. Calling this place Oneida, it quickly began to grow because of the favorable conditions and the strong market for cattle. However, the widely renowned Father of Amarillo Henry B. Sanborn bought land on higher ground to the east, believing that flooding would make the original site unpleasant. Ultimately, Sanborn won out and the county seat became Amarillo, on the land he proffered, in 1893.

In the 1890s, Amarillo became one of the busiest cattle shipping points on Earth and its population grew accordingly. As grains became important during the early 20th century, various aspects of that business took in increasing economic importance in the area. When gas was discovered in 1918 and oil in 1921, another industry came to town. In 1929 the Amarillo Helium Plant opened, and for a long time was the only commercial helium production facility in the world.

During this time, World War I general and businessman Ernest O. Thompson began working at making utilities in the city more affordable and initializing local capital improvements. His handiwork can still be seen in local infrastructure.

In time, many major railroads established themselves in town. After the Depression hit, several major US Routes converged in town, bringing tourists with them. During World War II, Pantex opened a munitions factory and the Army opened an airfield near the city. As time went on, the base closed and later reopened, Tyson Foods came to town and Pantex began making nuclear weapons for the Cold War.

Between the 1940s and the 1970s, Texas Senator Grady Hazelwood penned the first state school loan program designed to help college students and returning war veterans to go to school. His start came during the 1930s, working as the district attorney of Amarillo. He also went on to create the farm-to-market road program in Texas.

As the 20th century moved onward, the economy has gradually begun to shift away from production and into a more service-oriented model. Amarillo has taken this in stride, creating the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation or AEDC, which aggressively pursues potential employers for the city and offers generous incentives for doing so. In the 1990s they even went so far as to pay American Airlines a million dollars every year to continue having jet service into and out of the city. The bids to continue growing the employment opportunities of the local population continue to escalate as time goes on.

About Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo, Texas is the 14th largest city in Texas by population, coming in at roughly 173,000 people according to the 2000 Census. It straddles Potter County, where it's the county seat, and Randall County. The Amarillo Metropolitan Area, with roughly 236,000 people in it across four counties, is by far the largest and most economically important force in the Texas Panhandle. This area has been an economic powerhouse since it was first established, and has only grown in prominence since that time.

Amarillo has gone by a lot of names over the years. For one, it was called the Helium Capital of the World because of its massive helium fields. They are said to have been the largest in the country. As well, Amarillo has been called the Yellow Rose of Texas because the world "amarillo" translates into "yellow" in Spanish. In addition to that, one of the many factories in the city is the V-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft assembly plant, which led to the city also being called Rotor City, USA. No matter what name Amarillo may go by at any given time, she is definitely a special kind of city.

Amarillo is an incredible economic powerhouse and vital for the economy of the state of Texas. Aside from having the only nuclear weapon assembly and disassembly factory in the entire country, Tyson Foods and a host of different methods for shipping, the city also features a great deal of petroleum extraction facilities in its area. Overall, Amarillo is a pretty good place to find work, because there are a lot of interesting places to find all kinds of different jobs.

Amarillo is surrounded by 14.5 million acres of farmland, where corn, wheat and cotton are the most majorly grown cash crops. However, other crops such as soybeans and hay also play useful and significant supporting roles in the local farm industry. Couple that with the obvious cattle ranching that originally put Amarillo on the map and the more recent dairy farming explosion that's taken place, and there is an abundance of economic power.

There are several colleges and universities with either their main campuses or satellite branches located in and around Amarillo. As such, Amarillo adults are reasonably well educated, keeping up with the national average.

Culture is where Amarillo really shines, however. There are all kinds of natural things to see and do, such as the Palo Duro Canyon State park, named for the second largest canyon system following the Grand Canyon. Also nearby is the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, which was a significant place where prehistoric locals gathered flint for tools and weapons. Overall, there's a lot more to do in Amarillo than a person can manage to visit in one weekend or even a week.

About Potter County, Texas

Amarillo Texas is situated in Potter County and Randall County, and is the seat of Potter County. Potter County is named after Robert Potter, who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and acted as the Secretary of the Texas Navy. Randall County is named after Horace Randal, who was a Confederate general killed in the Battle of Jenkins Ferry. Unfortunately, when drafting the bill to commemorate General Randal, they were unable to spell his name correctly, in perhaps the last irony of the Confederacy.

Potter County held roughly 113,000 people and just over 27,000 families as of the 2000 Census. At the time, there were over 40,000 households in Potter County, and just over one third of these households had children under 18 years old within them. Just fewer than half the households were married couples. The average household size was 2.61 people, while the average family was 3.21 people.

As of the 2000 Census, Randall County contained just over 104,000 people in a little over 41,000 households. Of these households, nearly 29,000 were families living together. Of the families, 57.5% were married couples and marginally more than one third of all households had children under 18 living in the home. On the average, a household consisted of 2.49 people and an average family was an even 3 people. Both of these counties are strongly Republican by voting percentage, with Republican candidates winning every election in Potter County since 1952 and in Randall County since 1968 by whopping and indisputable margins.

Potter County has a land area of 909 square miles, while Randall County has a very similar 914 square miles of land within its borders. Randall County's most interesting geographic feature is the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon within the United States. Nearly 20% of the entire population of Potter County is under the poverty line, while only 8.5% of the people in Randall County are truly poor. The average household annual income in Randall County as of the 2000 Census was nearly $43,000, while in Potter County the average household made just under $30,000 per year.