Randall County Texas map
34.96° N · 101.90° W · County seat: Canyon · 923 sq mi
Randall County has the biggest hole in Texas and the fastest growth in the Panhandle. Palo Duro Canyon opens in its southeastern corner, 800 feet below a plain that gives no warning it is coming; the northern edge of the county is the southern half of Amarillo, which is why 140,753 people live here — more than in Potter County, where Amarillo's courthouse stands.
Amarillo's suburbs fill the top of the frame, Canyon sits at the centre on I-27, and the branching canyon system runs off the southeast corner.
Where Randall County is
Randall is directly south of Potter County in the middle of the Panhandle. Carson is northeast, Armstrong east, Swisher south, Castro southwest, Deaf Smith west and Oldham northwest. Lubbock is 96 miles south down I-27.
The county's name is a misspelling. It honours Horace Randal, a Confederate brigadier general killed at Jenkins' Ferry, but the 1876 bill that created the county added a second l and the extra letter stuck. The county was organized in 1889, three years after the first settlers put up a courthouse at the head of the canyon.
West of Canyon, on Tierra Blanca Creek near Umbarger, is Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The lake behind the 1938 dam is usually dry or nearly so; the refuge is managed for grassland and playa habitat and draws wintering waterfowl and hawks rather than boats.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Amarillo (part) | City | 98,811 |
| Canyon | City · county seat | 14,849 |
| Lake Tanglewood | Village | 690 |
| Timbercreek Canyon | Village | 434 |
| Palisades | Village | 269 |
| Happy (part) | Town | 52 |
Lake Tanglewood, Timbercreek Canyon and Palisades are small villages built down in the canyon breaks southeast of Amarillo — some of the only Panhandle addresses that are not on the flat. Happy straddles the Swisher County line and counts most of its people on the Swisher side.
The Amarillo county line, and Canyon
Amarillo's growth has run steadily south and west, so the Potter–Randall line now runs through the middle of a continuous city. Roughly half of Amarillo's 200,393 residents are counted in Randall County, including most of the subdivisions south of Hillside Road and west of Soncy. County services split at that line even though nothing on the ground marks it.
Canyon, 17 miles south of downtown Amarillo on I-27, is a separate town with its own reasons to exist. West Texas A&M University sits on its south side, and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum on the campus edge is the largest history museum in Texas, built in 1933 to hold the region's ranching, Native American and petroleum collections. The town square around the courthouse is the county's civic centre.
Roads
- I-27 – the spine, running from Amarillo south through Canyon and Happy toward Tulia and Plainview.
- US-87 – carried by I-27 through the county, splitting off at the south end.
- US-60 – southwest out of Canyon toward Hereford in Deaf Smith County.
- SH-217 – east from Canyon about 12 miles to the rim and the state park entrance; the only paved road into the canyon.
- Loop 335 – the southern arc of Amarillo's ring road, running along Hollywood Road inside Randall County.
Palo Duro Canyon
The Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River cut Palo Duro Canyon into the Llano Estacado, exposing rock layers that run from the Permian up through the Triassic in bands of red, orange and white. The canyon is roughly 120 miles long and up to 800 feet deep, the second-largest in the United States, and it is invisible from the plain until the road reaches the edge.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park covers the upper end, in Randall and Armstrong counties. The state bought the land in 1933 and the Civilian Conservation Corps built the switchback road down the wall, the cabins on the rim and the visitor centre, opening the park in 1934. The Lighthouse, a rock formation about three miles up a marked trail from the canyon floor, is the park's landmark. From June to August the Pioneer Amphitheater in the canyon stages the outdoor musical Texas, which has run every summer since 1966.
The canyon was Comanche and Kiowa winter camp ground because it offered water, firewood and shelter from the wind. On 28 September 1874 Ranald Mackenzie's cavalry came down the wall and destroyed the camps and the winter stores here, one of the decisive actions of the Red River War; the captured horse herd was driven south and shot in Tule Canyon. Two years later Charles Goodnight drove cattle into the canyon and started the JA Ranch, most of it on the Armstrong County side.