As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum as part of homecoming at West Texas A&M University.
The museum is the largest state owned museum in Texas, and they had a free day.
The main entrance is surrounded by bas relief designs of real cattle brands. I know at least a third of them, the most popular being Ten in Texas, or XIT. The brand is famous for being darn near impossible to change and try to cattle rustle.
I didn’t take tons of photos (you can save the art gallery for obvious reasons, though Virgil Tracy would appreciate the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit), but here are some of the things you can see there.
They expanded the petroleum wing, and a lot of these are the pioneer town. The town has always been my favorite exhibit, but now it’s far more interactive and you can go inside the buildings.
(Downside, not as many artifacts on display, though given it’s that or risk folks destroy stereoscopes and Victorian funeral hair wreaths... I’ll deal with it).
The war bonnet and lance were Quannah Parker’s, the last of the Comanche Chiefs.
The Smithsonian is apparently unhappy the museum has it... but Parker DID live here.
If you ever get the chance to go, please do so, and if you have questions about these pics please ask.
Been so many times at the museum, I know when they’ve changed things and still remember shortcuts and handicapped routes... even 7-10 years after the last visit. (That did come in handy this trip).
I should note though: I did picture Gordon and Alan raising a bit of nuisance in the Pioneer Town.
This was especially true with the linetype but in a previous post: I ended up using a lowercase “h” to finish the word Thunderbirds. It worked because the “h” had such long serifs it created a B. (As spelled, I had it “Thunderhirds.”)
I thought though as I found a third lowercase D however: “Gordon wants me to spell ‘Thunderdirds’ apparently.” 🙄
