Transcripts For CSPAN3 Palo Duro Canyon 20240713

It runs from here to silverton. Case that the canyon is at least 80 miles in length. The river is probably more like 120 miles. It is the second largest canyon in the United States after the grand. It is not a single canyon. There are many canyons that branch off to the sides. We are standing in an area or we can see three canyons from where we are at right now. It is a much bigger system than people realize even with a brief visit to the state park. I grew up here in amarillo. As a young kid, i remember coming out in elementary school. And after that, as soon as i got my drivers license, i was driving out here every time i could, ringing friends. We would explore some of the caves. We explored some of the caves right down there. I can tell you it is much bigger than what you think it is from looking at it. When you get into the canyon with your hiking stick and boots, you better make sure you have a lot of water because it is much farther than you think. There are all kinds of treasures out there we have been searching out for. One of the draws is just being around extreme nature. This, you could say is extreme nature. There are so many places out here that you can go up to and see the beautiful cliffs and rock outcroppings. When i was growing up, the only footage you had from the air was helicopter shots the local television stations would do and things like that. Of course, when the drones got popular several years ago, i had to be right there. I am a gadget guy. Its another one of my shortcomings, i guess. I have to have the latest gadgets. Of course, i have my drawn out drone out here. It was amazing. It helped having all that experience and knowledge of where to go to look at these things. From spending my life looking from the ground up, i knew where to go, i knew all of the places i wanted to go and get the view from the air down. I already had all these shots set up in my mind and went and executed as many as i could. There are so many places out here. You could stay on the trail and be suitably amazed with everything that you see and there is plenty to look at and take photos of and experience, but there are so many other places that are just off the trail. Palo duro canyon is a story of edges. We are on the edge of a lot of different hate ranges for a lot of plants and animals. It has also been a place that has been on the edge of these battles, these conflicts between different cultures, on the edge of these cultures. For the vast majority of the history of this area and canyon, the people that came here were a medic. They did not build permanent structures. They lived in temporary structures they could move as they traveled. They were mostly following large game. In the earliest days that was large, now extinct bison, things like mammoths, giant ground sloths, the ice age mega fauna that no longer exists. Even later than that we get into the late prehistoric period when they were more like youre more your typical image of what you think of when you think of native americans. The native american tribes here included the southern cheyenne, the comanche, the apache. And towards the end of the Southern Plains way of life here in the 1860s and 1870s, this became almost a stronghold for people trying to escape from the soldiers, settlers, hunters, people taking their land. Because this was in the center of comanche territory, it was very hard to get to. Of course, the native americans had thousands of years of knowledge of this area and the people coming into the area did not so they used this is a stronghold to escape. There was a series of battles in 1874 that became known as the red river war. The most decisive battle of the red river war was what we called the battle of palo duro which happened here in september of 1874. Basically, the comanches and cheyenne set up a winter campground like they had for years on the floor of the canyon. They were under the mistaken impression that they would be safe, that they would be left alone in the canyon that winter. They did not realize the government had sent five separate columns of troops into the area to look for them, to read them out, to try to force them back onto the reservation in oklahoma. The fourth calvary of the United States army discovered their encampment late in september. September 28 in 1874, the y dismounted their horses, these are cavalrymen, they led them into the canyon floor and charged into the village of mixed native americans. It is not a battle that had a high casualty count. It is more of a rout. Imagine waking up and you are laying there with your wife, your husband, your grandmother, your children, all of these people are with you. And you wake up to armed soldiers attacking your town. What would you do . They did the only thing they could do, which was to flee. They ran, setting up pockets of resistance to hold off the soldiers long enough to escape. Most of the native americans were very successful getting away. The problem was in their flight, they were not able to take much with them. They gave the fourth calvary the opportunity to come back and destroy their winter encampment, destroy all of their supplies. They also destroyed the bulk of their horse herd which for the comanches was their way of life. That was a big load to their way of life to lose not only their winter encampment but their horse herd as well. Over the months, they slowly trickled back into the reservation and that ended the Southern Plains way of life. A new group came in and saw the opportunity of this empty place. Empty of people, at least. Those were ranchers. The first one here to set up a was charlesnch goodnight. Cattle ranch was Charles Goodnight through most of the 1880s. It was about 1. 3 acres at its largest size. It was one of the largest in texas. A lot of that encompassed parts of the canyon behind us. This was great grazing land for bison and it worked great for the cattle they brought in also. The ranching in this spot lasted until 1933. From 1876 to 1933 this was a working cattle ranch. In 1933, the state of texas purchased about 15,000 acres that became the original state park. The people of the area had a strong desire to have a park here. Prior to this being a park, if you did not know someone who owned some of the land, you had to trespass to see it. It was all privately owned. The landowner here had some events where they allowed people to come out and visit the canyon. Sometimes tens of thousands of people would show up in the 1920s and 1930s to see it. Amarillo,e drive for but also surrounding cities wanted a park here because they knew how important it was to big of a boon it would be to have people come from all around to see it. The ranching continues all around us. But we are in this Little Pocket of public land that people can visit. That is part of what makes this so special. We would not have a park here if not for the civilian conservation corps. They were a new deal relief effort, one of the many groups started by president roosevelt in response to the great depression. They arrived here shortly after the creation of the ccc. They arrived here at balladur. One of the oldest parts in texas and across the nation. They got here in the summer of 1933 and set up their camp. One of the first projects they worked on was the road into the canyon. Obviously you cannot build the rest of the facilities until you have access to it. It is a reminder i give myself all the time when i come through the canyon, when im driving down every day, that they built this road by hand basically for 30 a month, 1 a day. It changed their lives in that they were able to feed themselves, provide for their families, and they learned a lot that served them well later in life. It also provides for us today because we have so many amazing historic structures, the road into the canyon. Without their work, we would not have everything we have today. You know, being up here in the texas panhandle, there is not a lot of written history. There is not a lot of history you can go back to and look at. This is one of those places you can go back and look at some of the history of the mortar stones. There is a rock that had indian art from probably 2000 years ago that you can still go to. It looks sure, it is not as vivid as it was back in the day, but it is still pretty vivid. I like that connection of being able to look at history that is more than just your grandfathers history. Texas state parks, state parks across the nation, national parks, these are your public lands. We want people to visit them and join us in our mission of stewardship of these places. We are here as stewards, we are here as caretakers of the lands for other people. I always ask schoolkids and they come in, who owns balladur canyon . And they always say i do or you do. It would be cool if i did, but i dont. This belongs to the people of texas where the people of the nation. The people of the world. We want them to come here and see this. We want them to understand how critical they are to the mission of stewardship of this place. Just south of amarillo is the panhandle planes Historical Museum. We take you inside as we hear the story of kansas citys influence on the development of amarillo. I think people around here know a lot about the ranching history in this area. Exas tends to be about itself i think this particular history is one of middle american regional story that has not been told. It is almost like the isolation of the ranching history in texas, but one of the things we talked about, we pitched it as looking without rather than looking within. We are in the panhandle planes Historical Museum. The museum is the largest Historical Museum in the state of texas, if you countered by the number of artifacts. The exhibition title is cattle, cowboys, and culture. Building an urban west. Of us are native to kansas city. We were always interested in how this place felt so similar to us. Uncle started looking at the theer of objects in collection related to kansas city and it turns out there were over 1000 objects in a database. We started looking at what kind of objects there were and we found such a good variety of objects we felt we needed to do a show that told the sisterhood of kansas city and amarillo. Amarilloght expect corrupt looking to dallas or houston, but this is around the train system and the cattle industry that drew those two cities together. Cal were being driven by the cowboys across the plains, for example, from texas to montana. Longhorns were the best kind of walking cattle for those drives. But they are not the best beef cattle. Cut897 the railroad had through this area and found it railroad. Ased on the amarillo did not exist until the railroad came through. By that time there was more shipping of the cattle on the rails rather than doing the drives. Those kind of cattle could be preferred and beef cattle that we think of. Andhe time kansas city amarillo were linked by the Santa Fe Railroad, kansas citys Cattle Market started booming based on the cattle raised in the panhandle. We helped each other to grow the industry with the train connecting the two. The other aspect is the culture and objects in the museum that tell the story of going to kansas city and finding goods and services that were bringing sophistication back here. The cowboys would go shopping and buy spurs and boots in kansas city. We did not have local Business Owners that could sell those items to the cowboys. I think people can understand beyond this area, it is a local history, it is also a regional history and a national history. We have a newspaper from kansas ofy that is dated to the era the borger boom of oil. In the 1926 there was Oil Discovered in the town and there was a huge influx of investment money into amarillo. Is,we have in this image kansas city newspaper featuring amarillo has the wonder city of the texas panhandle. So, this idea that the little amarillo city was the wonder city of the texas panhandle, that is something that today sounds oldfashioned. We also have this blueprint above by an architect who, i think, deserves his own study. Is an image of the United States with the city of amarillo that is larger than any ther city and it is showing networking of amarillo as a crossroads. Analso highly ideal ideal location for capital and industry. It is an almost quicker wine than to dallas. Houston is not even on this map. This map is what this whole show is about and how close those two cities work for a number of reasons, based on the cattle trade. These two objects help tell that story. We are standing in front of another object. This is a reproduction, but this is a blueprint for a Christmas Card design by guy, who was an architect. He was born in the kansas city area. He studied for a few years in pratt, kansas, then he got a job at the santa fe around. When he did not get the race he to start outcided in amarillo and found his own firm. Anlived out his life being amarillo citizen and he built so much of the landscape in this area. What we are looking at is a design by him. It is at the skyline of amarillo. One of the effects people would not know is that after oil was discovered in the regions in 1926 there was a boom in amarillo. There were more skyscrapers erected in amarillo at the time than any other city. The skyscrapers were seven to 10 stories tall. One of the things we did during the promotion of the show was think back to the musical oklahoma. Thinking e singing about kansas city, they say that seven stories is his highest buildings ought to go. This idea of scraping the sky at seven stories is something for the. That seems out of date for us. He is very proud of the skyline, and he designed a number of things here. He designed the baptist church. He also designed the fisk building. Covered they designed the amarillo link and the rural building. The rule building is one of the first buildings with a car garage attached to it. This was the era where amarillo went from the horse and buggy to automobiles. Amarillo, because it has the route 66 connection becomes an automobile city very quickly. And you can see that in the structures. I think the important is to get the sense that this area and amarillo is interesting because it is a big, urban center for a large, rural area. We were interested in how the development of cities and their landscape in the west occurred. The idea of kansas city being another city not as appreciated as it should be for its role in the United States development of urbanity. We were tying those two together and i think people can understand it is a local history, that is also a regional history and a national history. So, it works on a number of levels. Center ofo is in the the texas panhandle. We affectionately call ourselves the capital city of the texas panhandle. We are approaching 200,000 people, in this next census we will cross the 200,000 mark. One of the unique things about amarillo, i really think our superpower here is that we think regionally. While we do have geographic boundaries that define how many people live inside our city, we truly dont think that way. We think regionally. We think of these world communities, they belong to us. We are there city. In theow we are standing santa fe depot. When you think about building the entire city of amarillo, the materials for building the city came through this depot. They arrived by rail right here. Has grown and restarted as an agricultural town, now we are an urban center. So, none of fact could have happened without this location being right here by the rail. So much of our industry and. Aterials came right here of course, the depot was vacant. We are not using it today. We dont have Passenger Service anymore. We are still a significant hub nss and it is important in the coasttocoast travel of marketing goods by rail. We are still an important part of that. The reason have a reload was such a key point was the cattle industry. We traded cattle back and forth through kansas city, and also our agricultural commodities. Shippedotton, corn, we those all over the nation. It is such a rural area and was so difficult to get to, it really expanded the food supply for the nation and it really was a huge economic boost to our local, rural economy. Whether that was in the 1890s or the 1950s, the railroad has been a very important part of the amarillo economy and the panhandle economy. At think one of our largest problems as we are isolated. From a geographic point of view, we are at the spot that everyone comes to, but we are the spot. It is hard for us to change sometimes, because we get set in our ways and we dont have a lot of driving forces to forces to change. Continuing to have a mindset that adapts to and looks for change and looks for innovation, sometimes we struggle with that. That, takingof what could be a weakness and making it into a strength is that we are pioneers. A dont typically look to government or somebody else to help us do that. If we have got a challenge, we put our hands to the power and push harder until we have figured out the solution. Are interested in both local politics, statewide politics, and national politics. Of course, everyone is interested in the election coming up in 2020. Have a lot oft variance in its voting record. It will be interesting to see whether or not we draw any candidates here to comment talk to us. , and talk to us. How record is very conservative. Our Congressional District is known as the most conservative district in the nation, district 13. Look at our voting record, we vote republican more than any other district in the country. Blipkes us an interesting on the conversation point, but there are some assumptions that go along with that and it does not always draw political candidates to come here and campaign. A Great American city. I think we are poised at a bit of a renaissance, because we are experiencing a lot of positive momentum. I think there is going to be a curiosity about our city. There is going to be a curiosity about amarillo as people watch us move up through this renaissance, through the arts, through culture, resolving problems, through working together. To be ant is going exciting 20 years for amarillo. In amarillo texas is the nations primary facility for the final assembly, dismantlement, and maintenance of Nuclear Weapons. Methodyears the safest for the transportation of this material was by rail. We begin our look at the big thehe history of pantex at museum. We are trying to preserve the heritage in the texas panhandle. Most of these towns would not be here if it was not for the coming of the railroad. The railroadsick, were evolving and changing. We were seeing new or locomotives, we were seeing so many changes. We said, we need to preserve some of that before it disappears. The amarilloed Railroad Museum with the goal to preserve it. It was after we incorporated that we brought this bought this property here. It already had the Railroad Track on it. Eyesve been keeping our open for opportunities to acquire certain pieces of rolling stock, and we were fortunate to get the cars from formerly called by train, it was used for transporting Nuclear Weapons. Here we can display them so people can see these things that they would not be able to see anywhere else. This row of cars, i have set up kind of in the way why train use to operate. On the end is the escort coach. Next to it is what is called a buffer car. The deal for the buffer cars is, by law, people cannot write in a car adjacent to explosives. Then that red car, that is the sole surviving of the armor plated cargo cars. Around 1980 they modified the train, they armor plated these cargo cars for protecting the Nuclear Weapons. That is the sole survivor. Now we are up in the coppola of the escort coach. It is an elevated area. We have bullet resistant glass all around us. This is the security perch of the couriers would be. There would be at least two of here at all times. Watching to ensure that there is not any intruders trying to get on the train. Just in case, there would be any difficulties with anybody trying to get on the train, there are these gun portals here. They are blocked off right now, but, the couriers could use those if they needed to. Pentex is the primary assembly and disassembly facility for Nuclear Weapons in the United States. 1941 and begins in japanese attacked pearl harbor. That launched the united dates into world war ii. Land to that we had many lease programs with our future a assembly pantex is pack plant to build howitzer shells and bombs. We built conventional weapons during world war ii. Amarillo makes a great location to build one of these load Assembly Pack facilities. Exist no accident. It exists because of the railroad. The railroad is usually it is the most reliable means of transportation. Remember in 1942, we dont have a national highway system. There is no easy way to move goods through the United States reliably like that. The railroad becomes the means of transportation. One of the first things they do when they select the land is they lay spurs off of the Main Railroad line there and so they can direct those to the low lines. And they are able to build pantex so quickly because they bring those materials in the railroad where they are building. Goeslay down spurs and it right to where they are putting the low lines. Metalould bring in the shelves and any of the explosives, this explosive material via the railroad as well into there. Amarillo, because we are a railroad center, it is a great place to build pantex. As well as the Amarillo Army airfield that was set in 1941, it was constructed in 1941. Really where the amarillo airport is today. And so because amarillo is an Army Ordinance plant, and we had an army airfield, they are able to share a guard force and cross train. So it is pretty efficient. Amarillo also had a decent population. You are going to need workers. Pantex, at the height of our employment in 1943, we had over 5000 employees. All of those people needed a place to live. Amarillo being so close provided that. A lot of Housing Options for people to live so that pantex could have the size of the workforce it needed to complete our world war ii mission. War,x, throughout the cold had a remarkably consistent mission. Our mission was to build and dismantle Nuclear Weapons. Since 1970 five the primary Weapons Assembly site in the United States. Us isxt mission shift for in 1991 when the first president bush gives his speech on unilateral dismantlement. Of the United States would take it upon itself to start dismantling some of its Nuclear Weapons stockpile. We now have an unparalleled opportunity to change the Nuclear Posture of both the United States and the soviet union. If we and the soviet leaders take the right steps, some on our own, some on their own, some together, we can dramatically shrink the arsenal of the worlds Nuclear Weapons. We can more effectively discourage the spread of Nuclear Weapons. We can rely more on defensive measures in our strategic relationship. Stability andnced actually reduce the risk of nuclear war. Now is the time to seize this opportunity. Katie the soviet union was sort of coming to an end when president bush gives this speech. The soviet union still exists, but it is a few months later and the soviet union falls. But, so, we remained pretty confident throughout the cold war. Once the cold war is ultimately over, we start to shift to dismantlement. Pantex still has a vital function of dismantling our Nuclear Weapons stockpile, and figuring out how to dispose of certain materials within a nuclear weapon. And then furthermore today, we are focused on life Extension Programs so we ensure we have a safe, reliable stockpile for the future. For the United States to be a credible nuclear deterrent. We started building Nuclear Weapons back in the 1950s, we did not have a highway system. There was not a highway system in this country. Most everything and everyone byveled more by train than rail than by highway. In the meantime, to move the goods, these rail cards were specially designed by Sandia National laboratories for carrying Nuclear Weapons safely. Announcer the cspan cities tour is exploring the american story, taking book tv on the road every third weekend of the month. To watch videos from any of the places we have been, go to cspan. Org citiestour, and follow us on twitter [crowd booing] cspancities. Announcer established in 1926, u. S. Route 66 was one of the original highways in the u. S. Highway system carrying motorists over 2004 hundred miles from chicago, illinois to santa monica, california. In their book a matter of time, route 66 through the lens of change a photographer and a historian capture scenes along the route that speaks to its past. While in amarillo, we rode along with garlic, following the path of the old highway. Why do you think this highway is still popular today even after decades of after it was decommissioned . It has a lot to do with nostalgia today. Revisit places that may be they experienced as a child. Part of thege nostalgia. There is another kind of nostalgia as well, ive called anna moya. It is a desire to visit a place in the past that you never experienced. Americans andr for International Tourists of all ages for whom route 66 was only something they may have heard about, coming to do route 66 by car or motorcycle or bicycle today is getting to visit a distant past that they have only seen in books. When route 66 came through town in 1926, our airport, at least the modern airport, was not here. Today, you can drive on northeast eight and you run into a fence that is now protecting the modern airport. But the road kept going. In fact, amarillo is one of three cities along route 66 in which the road is now buried by airport. N amarillo, santa rosa, new mexico and st. Louis, missouri. Right up ahead here is where the fence and the gate are and if you get up high enough on a ladder or on top of a vehicle, you can see a bit of concrete from the 1920s that was still left here. The outerjust beyond ring road of the airport and runs up to one of the current runways i. Just saw a plane take off here and it crossed over route 66. It is still there. Hardly anybody knows about this little fragment of the mother road that is hiding in plain sight. Right beyond that gate is where the old road was and still is. Did the idea for this book start . Nick ellen and i met on facebook. I know it sounds cliche these days but we did. Groups forfacebook route 66. Germanyher husband in had been wanting to pursue a book project as they had been over to america a couple of times prior and had done a lot of photography on the road. They wanted to partner with someone from america who knew the route, and was prepared to write about it. We kind of had a blind date in may of 2015. They asked me via facebook if i would like to meet them for dinner in downtown amarillo. I said, of course, i would love to do that. We met, had dinner, they pitched the idea and we all fell in love with each other. From that point forward, alan and i started working on the structure of the book where structure of the book, where we wanted it to go, what kind of narrations we wanted. And her husband who was already an accomplished author had decided he was going to be our manager. He cap does on task through all of that. Inbegan our joint efforts september of 2015 on one of their subsequent trips. Nextaveled extensively the three years visiting many sites il along route 66 so that could experience what ellen was experiencing, and more specifically, what she was seeing through the lens of her camera. And that had a big part in the naming of our book, a matter of time, route 66 through the lens of change. It was not just a clever wordplay, it was really truly what we were doing. We wanted to chronicle change, and that is a reoccurring theme in the classes that i teach as well. I think it is important to know your history, how it all began. Takehen it is important to note of where you are today because the only way to plan for the future is to know your past and present. And that is what we wanted to do with the book. In those photos, we were able to of manye the decay things that were once prospering along 66. But also, the emergence of new businesses along 66, as well as the evolution of older businesses. Because 66 isnt dead yet. I dont think it will ever be dead. Partsof it are, but other are very much alive. And we wanted to focus on how things have changed. Some things didnt change for the best, but other things did change very well. People have evolved, businesses have evolved, and they are still out there meeting the needs of tourists today. Ok, we are coming into downtown amarillo. And we are going to stop and take a look at the Herring Hotel which was built in 1926 and five and a half months. A 13 story building, absolutely amazing that somebody could do that in five and half months. They cant even build an overpass in two years around here these days, much less a 13 story hotel. And it was situated just feet off route 66. And had a soft opening on 1926, which was only a month and four days after the birth of route 66. And then they had a big gala on new years eve of 1926 and then they were in business for good. It is an amazing hotel. It has been abandoned for many years. And it needs a lot of money and a lot of tlc. But it could be something again today. This had 600 rooms. It also had people who lived at it. In other words, it had condos before condos were a thing. Folks had fullsized living quarters, apartments, on the upper floors. And this is where the movers and shakers stayed. Club wheret had a oilmen and cattle bearings could come hang out and do business back in the old days. It had a on the second floor, a coffee shop. There was also a big ballroom on the second floor. This was the premier establishment in amarillo. On southwest six. This is route 66 going through town. We have the historic courthouse, and library on the right. Nice modernith structures all reflecting cert with all reflecting surfaces across the street. The First Bank Southwest Building a couple of blocks down the road, it is the tallest lding between amarillo and excuse me, it is the tallest building between fort worth and denver at 31 stories. Right ahead here is the barfield building undergoing renovations right now. It will reopen in 2020 as a marriott autograph hotel. That is a big part of the experience here in amarillo, is being able to see the old amid the new and how it all kind of comes together. Ellen is a really good photographer, she has been influenced by a lot of really good street photographers through the years. She could really see the juxtaposition of the old and the new here, the skyscraper, they old sign, and so forth, in the old street. And the old street. We are in the far western panhandle. The texas unfortunately, driving a little bit on the interstate right now but only because route 66 was 1970s. Ted here in the we are going to get off at exit zero and visit one of the coolest ghost towns along all of route 66. Glenn rio. We are going to trust the freeway here now and get on to a little strand of old route 66, the last strand in texas going west and the first strand if you were going east. Are that in mind, we actually going to stop at the First Last Motel which is right on the state line. Just like the name implies, it was the first or last thing you saw, depending on which way you were going. Announcer are cspan cities tour of amarillo continues on American History tv with a visit to the panhandle plains Historical Museum in nearby canyon. As we walk through the native lifeways of the planes exhibition. Hi, my name is bill mercer, im the assistant director associate director at the panhandle plains Historical Museum. Today what i would like to do is share with you about our native american collection and the history of native americans and the culture of native americans in the panhandle region of texas. That wery appropriate begin with the contemporary. Im standing here right next to a magnificent piece of sculpture by the noted artist, alan hauser, who was apache. And he was born in oklahoma. He was a descendent of geronimos band who was removed jerome a after geronimo and his band were captured. He later became a terrific artist. And as you can see here, one of the main foci of this particular piece is a native american on horseback. And that is truly the story of native americans in the Southern Plains region in the panhandle especially. Once horses became available to 1600s, particularly the comanches and some of the were able to, they obtain horses from the traders in santa fe. Stealing some of them as well. They were able to then utilize the environment much more efficiently because they could cover much longer distances. Cultures in hunting really became bison hunting culture really became the strong suit, the highlight of the area. And it became a culture of mobility. What im going to do today is to share with you some of the objects that were associated with that kind of mobility. Objects such as clothing that were beaded with glass beads obtained through trade. Is what i would like to do to begin by starting out looking at some moccasins. Moccasins are really a diagnostic feature of plains indian people. Everybody understands you have got to wear something on your feet. Each tribe throughout the planes in the historic period, and by that, i mean the 1800s into the early 1900s, every tribal group had its own distinctive style of moccasins. Be it the way they were cut and shaped, and then also decorated. Some folks would beat them completely on the top. Others would also incorporate porcupine quill work sewn onto it. Plains,the southern quite frequently, such as what you can see on this particular pair that could be either comanche or a kiowa, they were partially beaded. But also decorated with green paint in this particular instance. And then, the wonderful tin combs that would make a very pleasing sound as one would be walking. At the heel, there was oftentimes a little bit of leather fringe that was put on there. And people used to say, this is to obscure the tracks as they are walking. But that is not necessarily the case because these people did not spend much time walking. They were on horseback. So really what it was was the fringe was decorative to hang moccasine back of the as the person was on horseback or to sort of flitter off as they were galloping on horseback. It was purely an aesthetic kind of thing. What i would like to do is to move from here and then show you some other very specific kinds that were characteristic of the Southern Plains folk like the kiowa, like the comanche. The moccasins that we were looking at just a moment ago were all made for men. But for women, it was generally boots so that you have these moccasins with these leggings on them, sometimes they were all made in one piece, in this particular piece, it is two pieces. You can see the wonderful geometric designs to the beadwork and then the redish, purple, maroon color things, those are scout beings that were used for decorative purposes as well. On these glass beads Southern Plains with the comanche and the keio, they really took beadwork to and in normas sleep fine art. And oftentimes, it showed up in the objects that were associated with the native american church. And here are some of these kinds of things, the little pouch there with the figure in the center of it. Each one beads, painstakingly put on. Carried that people into the tipis during the ceremonies and the rattles that were used to keep time for the songs. And each one of those handles is wonderfully beaded. Although in some instances, as we see here, it was just wrapped with red instead of beadwork thread instead of beadwork. On the planes in this area of the planes, what we have is a great deal of veneration for children. Not only do you see wonderful toys such as this doll in the small cradles there, which were seen as toys, but instructional toys, because it was teaching young girls how to care for their own young when that time came. And then of course, this magnificent cradle that we see here, this is a fullsized cradle, fully beaded, and it is very interesting to note that oftentimes with those cradles, there would be a different design from one side of the cradle to the other. And even the complete shift in color as well as designs, this was very typical of the late as0s, early 1900s for kiowa, well as comanche cradles, that had these wonderful wooden frames sometimes painted. This one also has elaborate decoration in terms of the tax that are added as well. To then what i would like also do is to show you probably our most significant single object in our native american collection at the plan at the panhandle plains Historical Museum. It is a headdress that belonged to the head chief. He was the son of a white who rose through Comanche Society to ultimately become the leading chief. He was involved with the red along this area against the United States government as the native people were being pushed out. He was considered to be a great leader. With botho involved of the battles of the adobe walls in 1864 and again in 1874. And he lived well into the 20th century. Ultimately, he became an incredible advocate for the comanche people and other tribes. And he was an early ee early leader of native american church. This is a photograph of him around 1900 or so. His full glory as an adult wearing his finest clothing. In the headress headdress remarkables a example of these kinds of objects that were worn by men of high rank and high status. The golden eagle feathers that are topped with horsehair on them, the red woolen cap, and rickthe wonderful metallic rack along the brow. People of thee trailer nation, a full would have signified great importance, high, high ranking status for anyone who have the opportunity to obtain one, to own one, and earn the right to also where it. One of thely is great pieces that we have in the collection here at the panhandle plains Historical Museum. We are very grateful to the families who continue to come and visit and to examine this piece as part of their family heritage as well. So what we are trying to do is to not only educate the public about historic native american arts and culture, that we are also reaching out and working with contemporary native people to help educate us even more about traditional native american heritage. And particularly here on the panhandle, we are specifically looking toward our kiowa and comanche friends for that. Announcer hour cspan cities tour visit to amarillo continues with a downtown stop at the historic Santa Fe Railroad depot. Where i want to get you started is take a look at some of the unique features of the santa fe depot. A key component of the development of amarillo with its tie into both industry coming into amarillo and agricultural being shifted out of amarillo. The railroad was a big part of that. We are here to look at the unique features that santa fe did when they built this facility. Right now, we are in the baggage room which is original to amarillo, a lot of the original stuff is still here, original construction, none of that has changed. We have the scales that are original. This would have been the passenger and Light Commercial freight area. Your passenger freight and steam trucks, anything you were traveling with would come across here and be weighed, just like what you have on the airplane so today was done on the trains years ago. That was here and your commercial freight would have been done on the scales up top. One of the cool things you will notice as we go through the building is the construction of this building. This was billed by Railroad Engineers so it is built to last. This building is over 100 years old. Go through the building, keep in mind, this is historical. This is a room that is unique, but is important to our history. The coom would have room. S only there was no airconditioning and heating and cooling back in the day. The windows are still in place throughout the Railroad Facility through the depot. This was basically the cooling. When you wanted cooling in the summertime, all of these windows were opened up to move air throughout the facility. When we come down through here, we will step back out to where you actually boarded the trains from this location. Adaptation,en an originally, these were all opened, they were never closed. Your ticketmaster would stay here and your porter would stay here in this small building right here. This is where you got your ticket punched to get on the train. You will notice the train tracks are higher now. They were actually three feet lower back in the day when the depot was originally built. A lot of that has changed because of the weight of the trains and what is required for the trains. If this was to turn back into a passenger station, it could be converted with an elevated deck. If amtrak was ever to come through amarillo, this is where it would be. In, one of the cool features of our depot is we still have the original ticket counters. When you look at our ticket counters here, this would have been where you come to buy a ticket. We still have the sound system that was original to the railroads. It is still here. Some of the artifacts that were unique to amarillo, we still have conductors jacket and caps. We have the telegraph. All of that equipment, we still have here. We do not store it here inside the depot, we store it in a safe place. A lot of those historical elements of our depot are still in place and still here in amarillo. I would like for you to come in behind and take a look at the ticket counters. These are original to the depot too. One of the unique things about this, anybody that has done retail and identify what we are looking at. One as a last time you saw change drawers that you had the wood hollowed out to where you can slide your change in and out . All the denominations of the dollar bill. All of that is original, this is from back in the early 1900s. We still have all of these these would have been where they kept the locks. If you are taking a train to albuquerque, new mexico, this is where they kept the stamps and tickets to move you through the system. Once again, all original and the fact that you see it moving and operating so easily is a testament to the construction of the time and period. What we have here is critical to a lot of people that dealt with the railroad. The first mural was chicago. When you see the age of the vehicles, you understand when this photo was taken. Chicago was the hub, it was the starting point for a lot of the rail line. Santa fe had a presence there and they came through the high plains, across the top of texas, across new mexico, and then you would see the grand canyon represented and they would end up in San Francisco at napa valley. The mural basically gives you a depiction of the way you moved by train across the western half of the United States. When we come into this area, was classified as the grand ballroom. Your big beef buyers would have come here to make deals with the big rangers in texas. This is where those deals would have been made. It is easy to visualize how important this was. This would have been for Big Community civic functions, because the depot was the biggest and most prominent structure in the city of amarillo at the time it was built. What we have here is an original santa fe door. This door actually was located on the others of the building. It moved here because is important to us and for this specific part. That is actually goldleaf and an original Santa Fe Railway door. That is the reason you see the paper behind it, we are protecting all of that. In this grand ballroom, you could have had the ranchers from x i. T. Or the four sixes coming here to meet with the brokers to broker deals to sell beef to the rest of the United States out of this room. Are depot is one of the unique depots because the harvey house is part of the depot itself. We will take a trip upstairs and look at the historic harvey hotel. As we come up into the harvey house, understand it was a highend hotel. This would have been the coat room. As you came up, you would have been received here, they would have checked your coat, put it in the coat room. Then you would have entered into the hotel itself. This was the dining area for the harvey house. This was a fullservice restaurant, the restaurant over here, and there would have been tables and chairs in here and the harvey girls would have serviced you in here. The harvey girls actually were not allowed to mingle with the guests. They had to stay segregated. The harvey girls have a separate entrance into their area so that they didnt have to come through the station to park in this area. They had their own dormitories and they were back here. This would have been the private entrance for the harvey girls to come into, both work and live here. A lot of those girls basically signed a contract with harvey, lived on premises and stayed on premises and some of them for many years. There was a high set of standards to be a harvey girl. You absolutely could not fraternize with your customers. They kept them segregated for a lot of reasons. But that being the first one. Here would have been the restroom facilities. As you came down the hallways, all the girls had to come down here to use the restroom. You. M going to get behind jerry we will show you a quick look at one of the dormitory rooms for the girls. This room could have held between six to eight girls it. De of once again, take a look, we have the transit windows to move the air across here. They had steam heat in here but no air conditioning. You can imagine a day one of the more interesting things is that the reason you know this is a dormitory is because this is what is considered a large closet in the day. It is notlk in but much size for a walkin closet. Of course, the girls would have had a view outside of their dormitories. From the restaurant, they could see the Railroad Tracks, they could know when the trains were coming and then when their workloads were going to increase. As we walked down here, we start looking at some of the hotel rooms. You are going to notice that the hotel rooms, im going to ask you to envision back in the early 1900s, not many cars around here. Still a lot of horses and wagons. And the prominence of this structure in that time period is undeniable. Impressive. This would have been one of the first hotel rooms that you could get from harveys. As you can tell, it is not very big. But it served its purpose. If you are traveling across country and you wanted a one night stay, you maybe did 12 hours coming from kansas city to hear, heres where you would have stopped and rested before you went to the grand canyon and then on to california. Now as i said earlier, keep in mind, there was some big bills being made in amarillo at that time. You are talking about somebody that is buying beef that is going to be feeding tens of thousands of people in the east and the upper midwest. So, those guys that are doing that, they are rather wealthy guys. They will not take a room like this. They are going to take a sweet, step into a suite. This would have been a suite. It connected these two rooms together plus a huge walk in closet. At the time that this was built, there wasnt really much of a downtown amarillo, but you can see all of amarillo developed back to the east. So you could have been in this room and seeing the entirety of amarillo from these windows. We want to keep our history. It is an important part of who we are. And we envision redeveloping the spot back to its original look and feel. Of course, there could be multiple uses that dont necessarily involve it being a train. We could have dining, we could have a bed and breakfast harvey hotel. We envision this being a destination because not only are trains, but wehe are tied to route 66. We still get a lot of that route 66 traffic coming through amarillo and the depot is one of the key features people when they drive it, they want to see it. It is such an important part of the history of not only amarillo, but the United States and the development of the west. Announcer our cities tour staff recently traveled to amarillo, texas to learn about its rich history. To watch more video from amarillo, and other stops on our tour, visit cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan three. Announcer up next on the civil war, Texas Christian University Stephen Woodworth discusses ulysses s. Grants leadership style and how it compared to generals. N he argues characteristics such as his calmness helped bring the civil war to a close. s talk is hosted by Kennesaw State universitys civil war center. Brian thank you for taking your seats and we will continue with our leadership seminar. The coach has been so generous to let us use his name, i know he wants to find ways to contribute to the learning and education as part of kennesaw