Amarillo to Canyon to Amarillo (51 km)

Today we made a short Trip to Canyon, where we went to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. It´s a very well made museum, showing the history of this area here, with the endless flat plains and the Palo Duro Canyon (the second biggest in the USA) in the middle. We were the only visitors at the beginning, even the director came to greet us and to talk to us, what a honour!
Long before the white people came here, different Indian tribes lived here like nomades, traveling with the bisons who gave them all they needed to survive. Then about 1850 early settlers came and killed the bison, because the meat and leader was a good business and in high demand. With the disapperance of the bison, the Indians couldn´t live here anymore, they moved away or simply died. With them went the wise use of the land.
The settlers had problems to live here, because it´s so dry. The invention of the wind driven water pump revolutionized the countryside, water could be pumped from the underground and life started to flourish. Transport was with horsecarriges and later by train. And all this was only about 100 years ago. Then oil was discovered. A boom took off and many farmers got very rich from the oil, which also attracted many other people. The oil industrie here is still a huge force, many oil pumps still stand on the land and pump the black gold. 


In the plains



Fixing the bike and watching th sunset

But with the cheap energy from oil and electricity, the water was pumped with engines, which allowed more cattle and irrigation. Today, the underground water is depleted quicker than it fills up, a fact that or later will cause tremendous problems here. Feedlots with 30´000 head of cattle are medium size, but all depends on cheap energy and is not sustainable. What did strike us most, was that these early settlers had to have so  many good ideas to survive. But as soon as the cheap always available energy came, all that bright engineering became less important and was partly lost as well as the sense for the fragile environment here in this semi arrid region.

After the museum we drove of, we still wanted to reach Hereford, some 30 miles further west. But after 7 miles, a new flat. We fixed it and just had an other one. In the meantime it was dark, very, very cold and we had once again to hitch-hick back. And once again, a very nice gentleman helped us. Ty stopped, took time to load all our gear in his van and even brought us to our hotel. How greatful we were and how much we appreciate this great friendliness here.