85R12011 JGH-D
By: Price H.R. No. 526
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, On February 21, 2017, proud residents of the Texas
Panhandle are visiting Austin for Panhandle Day at the State
Capitol, a celebration of the rich heritage of this important
region of the Lone Star State; and
WHEREAS, The striking landscape of the Panhandle ranges from
the vast grasslands and open sky of the Llano Estacado to the
breathtaking vistas of Palo Duro Canyon and the Caprock Escarpment
to the gently undulating rolling plains of the southeast; the
ancient Paleo-Indians once lived here, as did members of later
Native American cultures, and in 1541, when the explorer Francisco
Vázquez de Coronado passed through the area, he found a rich
rangeland, thick with buffalo; and
WHEREAS, The Panhandle's distinctive shape results from
boundaries that were established by the Compromise of 1850, and in
the decades after the Civil War, pioneering cattlemen such as
Charles Goodnight, James Adair, and Thomas Sherman Bugbee
established enormous ranching empires; the arrival of the railroad
in the late 1880s hastened the development of wheat and cotton
farming, and the discovery of oil and natural gas in the 1920s
further boosted and diversified the region's economy; and
WHEREAS, Today, the Panhandle continues to prosper from
farming and from the oil, gas, and wind industries, and
cattle-raising remains a multibillion-dollar business, with more
feedlots in the region than anywhere else in the nation; Amarillo,
the Panhandle's largest city, is home to such large employers as
Xcel Energy, Tyson Foods, Bell Helicopter, Pantex, and several
health care systems, as well as to the Texas Cattle Feeders
Association; Pampa, the second-largest city, is a thriving center
for petroleum and livestock, and Dalhart boasts the annual XIT
Rodeo and Reunion and the Hilmar Cheese Company; Sunray is home to a
Valero refinery, while Dumas and Hereford are known for cattle
feeding and beef processing enterprises; Panhandle serves as county
seat of Carson County and is home to Panhandle Elementary School, a
2016 National Blue Ribbon School, and Borger is the site of a
Phillips 66 refinery and an Agrium nitrogen plant; and
WHEREAS, The educational needs of the Panhandle's residents
are served by the nationally recognized Texas Tech University
Health Sciences Center and West Texas A&M University, as well as
such first-rate junior college institutions of higher learning as
Amarillo College, Frank Phillips College, and Clarendon College;
and
WHEREAS, The Panhandle features a variety of notable cultural
and recreational attractions; Amarillo supports the Lone Star
Ballet and the Amarillo Symphony, and the city's many museums
include the American Quarter Horse Heritage Center and Museum, the
Don Harrington Discovery Center, the Texas Air and Space Museum,
the Amarillo Railroad Museum, the Amarillo Museum of Art, and the
Kwahadi Museum of the American Indian; the Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum in Canyon houses more than two million artifacts
that evoke the heritage of the region, while Palo Duro Canyon State
Park hosts the outdoor musical drama Texas, which portrays the
struggles and triumphs of area settlers in the 19th century; Dumas
draws visitors from across the region for its Dogie Days every June,
and Stratford, the county seat of Sherman County, hosts its popular
Jamboree each July; and
WHEREAS, The people of the Texas Panhandle are blessed to
live in a region of abundant natural resources and windswept
beauty, and they may indeed take great pride in the important
contributions they have made and continue to make to the history,
culture, and prosperity of Texas; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas
Legislature hereby recognize February 21, 2017, as Panhandle Day at
the State Capitol and extend to those attending the celebration
sincere best wishes for a memorable and meaningful event.