The Texas Panhandle - I-40 corridor
August 31st, 2005 by leafworksNorthwestern Texas a.k.a. The Texas Panhandle
Entering Texas in a minute little stem that protrudes from its southern mass inbetween Oklahoma and New Mexico is but a short jolt of a journey (compared to the rest of the state) but has its scenic prairie charm nonetheless. The I-40 corridor is nice - with great rest areas with good amenities. As you enter Texas, the first rest area is also a very high tech Tornado shelter to protect those from the whirlwinds that devestate this area often.
 Oklahoma prairies off I-40 to Texas border  “Welcome to Texas”, I-40 tornado shelter/rest area ©2005 Technogypsie.com, click photo for larger view |
Wind Ranchers of White Deer
Travelling west towards Amarillo, you can take a slight detour to White Deer where you can see Wind ranching in abundance. Within a nine square mile site, is a parcel of land where the crop is clean, renewable electricity. The Llano Estacado Wind Ranch is located in one of the windiest locations in Texas - 80 huge wind turbines produce 80 megawatts of electricity, enough to fill the electrical power requirements of about 26,600 homes. Rows of 226 foot towers with 180 foot rotors dominate the 5760 acre site, spaced properly so crops can be grown or livestock grazed in the spaces inbetween the towers. The turbine towers take up less than 300 square feet and animals are not bothered by the whirling whispering rotors. The rotors turn 21 times a minute, and produce no pollution.
(roadside memorial marker at I40 rest area)
Palo Duro Canyon, Texas
“Although the Texas Panhandle seems flat as a plate, right next to the Texas/Oklahoma border in the Panhandle, lies the second largest canyon in the United States. It is 1,000 feet deep, 20 miles wide, and more than 100 miles long, there is no hint of its presence, until suddenly, there it is … Only the Grand Canyon is larger - the Canyon was carved out of solid rock over millions of years by the Prairie Dog Town fork of the Red River. It seems unlikely that a small and insignificant stream could carve such a colossal hole in the Earth, but there it is and still in progress. Palo Duro is Spanish for a hard wood referring to the canyon’s strong supply of cedar brush from which Indians made shafts for their arrows. The deep canyon has been occupied for 12,000 years first Clovis and Folsom peoples, then the Apaches, Comanches, and Kiowa, to Conquistador Coronado to the Comancheros to Colonel Goodnight who brought the first Texas longhorns here in 1876. (roadside memorial marker at I40 rest area)
