If you visit the cities of Texas you will learn a lot about modern Texas and also see some well preserved historic buildings. What you won’t get in the cities is a clear understanding of Texas back in the 19th century when it was frontier territory. Apart from the Stockyards area of Fort Worth, the cities have moved on too far to have retained many echoes of frontier days. Up in the north of Texas it is very different. Life there is slower and in towns like Amarillo and Abilene the days when they were on the frontier don’t seem to be so far away.  A quick note on geography, the section of Texas sticking up into Oklahoma with Amarillo at its centre is known as the Panhandle, but we cover a wider area on this page from the Panhandle down to the San Angelo area. We have used the phrase North Texas to identify this area.

Enlisted Mens' Quarters, Fort Concho, San Angelo

After the end of the Civil War, settlers began to move west creating new tensions, especially with the Indian Tribes. Fort Concho was set up on the banks of the Concho River in 1867 to protect settlers.  A small but rather lawless village know as Santa Angela sprang up on the opposite bank of the river. The village grew to become a trade centre for the settlers. The village name was shortened to San Angela, but in 1883 the US Postal Service objected to the name on the grounds that it violated rules of Spanish grammar, so the name was changed to San Angelo. The arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1888 was the start of San Angelo becoming a major transport hub rather than a frontier town. Fort Concho became redundant and was decommissioned in 1889.  For a time the fort was privately owned but now Fort Concho is a National Historic Landmark owned and preserved by the City of San Angelo. Because it was solidly built using local limestone it remains in good repair and is one of the best preserved frontier forts that we have visited. Click Tab 2 to see the Hospital at Fort Concho. 

North Texas

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Panhandle-Plains Museum, Canyon

The history of the Panhandle area of Northern Texas from frontier days to the 20th century is brought to life in the Panhandle-Plains Museum in the small town of Canyon south of Amarillo. Located on the campus of West Texas A&M University, the museum has more than 3 million artefacts. The museum has an outdoor Pioneer Village, and exhibits cover Western Life, Agriculture, the Petroleum Industry and Indian art plus many more.

Buddy Holly Statue, Lubbock

The story of Buddy Holly is well known, but it is well worth repeating here. Charles Harding Holley was born in Lubbock on September 7, 1936 and his mother nicknamed him  ‘Buddy’. As a child he learned to play several musical instruments and after he left school he formed a country & western band that performed in the Lubbock area. When his style shifted  to rock & roll he was signed up for a record contract and with his surname was misspelled on the contract, he became Buddy Holly. In September 1957 ‘That’ll be the Day’ by Buddy Holly and the Crickets topped the US charts. More hits followed. In January 1959 Holly embarked with other artists on the Winter Dance Party tour round the USA. It was a punishing tour made worse by travelling in an unheated bus in winter. By the time they reached Clear Lake in Iowa Holly was fed up with sleepless nights in a cold bus. On February 3, 1959 he hired a plane to take him on to Moorhead in Minnesota.  Ritchie Valens and Waylon Jennings were due to join him on the flight, but at the last minute Jennings gave up his seat for The Big Bopper, who had flu. The plane crashed shortly after take off on  in heavy snow, killing all on board. Holly is remembered in his home town of Lubbock by a statue of him performing and over the road the former FW&D South Plains Railway Depot now hosts the Buddy Holly Center which is filled with memorabilia from his short career.

Fort Phantom Hill, Abilene

Fort Phantom Hill was one of a chain of forts built in the early 1850s to protect the frontier. US Army troops were based in Fort Phantom Hill from 1851, but with limited water supplies at the fort they moved out in 1854. The origin of the name is unclear, it may be because the fort appears to be on a hill from the distance but not from close up, or it may be a result of stories suggesting that it was haunted.  Shortly after the army departed, fire destroyed the timber buildings, leaving just their stone chimneys. The powder magazine, guardhouse and commissary/ warehouse were built of stone and these remain largely intact to this day. Between 1858 and 1861 the fort was used as a Butterfield Stagecoach way station  then during the Civil War it was occupied by the Confederate Army. Around 1875 a town sprang up amongst the ruins, but by it had been abandoned by the 1890s. Through most of the 20th century the ruins were privately owned, but in 1997 the site was deeded to the Fort Phantom Foundation who have preserved the ruins and opened Fort Phantom Hill to the public. This picture shows an old wagon left at the site and the chimneys of the Hospital Complex.

The Grace & Wooten Hotel, Abilene

In 1881 the Texas and Pacific Railroad arrived here and local cattlemen used it as a stock shipping point. A settlement sprang up alongside the track. It was given the name Abilene after Abilene in Kansas which was the railhead at the end of the Chisholm Trail before the railroad reached Texas. The county seat of Taylor county was Buffalo Gap, but with the railroad bypassing the town it had to surrender that role to Abilene. The city has grown steadily rather than explosively and its focus has changed from livestock to government, healthcare and education.  The downtown area of the city has retained many historic buildings. In this picture on the left is the former Grace Hotel built in 1909. It closed in 1973 and was left derelict. It was restored in the 1980s and is now the home of art museum The Grace.  The high rise building in the distance was the Wooten Hotel. It opened in 1930 but like the Grace Hotel it hit hard times in the 1970s.  It was rescued in 2005 and coverted into luxury apartments called The Hotel Wooten. If want to learn more about the frontier days, there is a museum in the historic downtown area called Frontier Texas! which uses state of the art technology to tell the story of the American West.  Life-sized holographic figures of people who lived and died in the West tell their stories while static exhibits show many aspects of Western life. Click Tab 2 to see a Chuck Wagon in Frontier Texas.

Bivins Home, Polk Street, Amarillo

Amarillo is the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. It was founded by J I Berry in 1887 in the path of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad which was then under construction. After the arrival of the railroad, Amarillo thrived as a trading centre for the large ranches that surrounded it. Lee Bivins was a prominent rancher and pioneer of the Texas Panhandle oil and gas industry. In 1905 he built  this town house at 1000 Polk Street, Amarillo. The house design is described as a West Texas version of the late Georgian Revival style. Bivins died in 1929 while serving as mayor of Amarillo. His wife Mary died in 1951 and she bequeathed the house to the City of Amarillo. The house is used by the Chamber of Commerce and some other organisations but it is also open to the public.

Eggemeyer’s General Store, San Angelo

Modern San Angelo has old buildings and plenty of street murals. Here we have one of the  more unusual attractions in the city. Eggemeyer’s  General Store looks as though it dates back a long time. The building dates back to 1911 when it was a car dealership but the General Store business was not founded founded until 1983 in the town of Wall, to the south east of San Angelo. Founders Bobby and Karen Eggemeyer  moved the store to San Angelo in 1988. Their recreation of a Victorian era General Store is crammed full of interesting and quirky goods. The store also has a traditional soda fountain.  Click Tab 2 to see the inside of the store.

American Wind Power Center, Lubbock

The County of Lubbock was founded in 1876 and named after Thomas S. Lubbock, a former Texas Ranger and officer in the Confederate Army. His brother, Francis R. Lubbock, was the governor of Texas during the Civil War. The settlement that grew into the present day city of Lubbock was founded in 1890 by the merger of two small settlements and the following year it became the county seat. Lubbock’s growth was due to agriculture as  it became the hub of the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. Modern Lubbock has a population of nearly a quarter of a million people. Apart from being known as the birthpalce of Buddy Holly (see below), Lubbock is the home of a very quirky museum, the American Wind Power Center. Here you can see examples of windmills large and small, from modern wind turbines to the small low cost windmills used on virtually every farm to pump water. There is even a replica of a 1621 post mill. Lubbock is also home to some quirky residents. Prairie Dogs are herbivorous burrowing rodents that are native to the grasslands of North America. Large numbers of them live in a Prairie Dog Town in Lubbock’s MacKenzie Park. Click Tab 2 to see a couple of residents of Prairie Dog Town.

Gas Station, Buffalo Gap Historical Village, near Abilene

Buffalo Gap was the capital of Taylor County until in 1883 the capital moved to 21 kilometres (13 miles) north to Abilene. Buffalo Gap Historic Village started in 1956 with the purchase of the old Courthouse to create a small historical museum. Around the old courthouse has since been assembled a range of historical buildings from the Texas frontier. At the Gas Station a well preserved Model T Ford stands by the pumps. The pumps show how gasoline (petrol) used to be hand pumped it into the glass container at the top of the pump, then dispensed by gravity and the measured by graduations in the glass container. Click Tab 2 to see the 1st Taylor County Courthouse & Jail & Knight-Sayles Cabin.

© Mike  Elsden 1981 - 2025

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