7 Crazy Facts About Amarillo

Amarillo is not your average city, and here are seven crazy facts to prove it.

This Texas Panhandle city on historic Route 66 has buried Cadillacs, a steak so big it's free if you can finish it, and a secret most Americans have never heard of. Stick around, because number one is the most famous of all.

#7: A team named after a prairie dog

Amarillo's baseball team is named after a rodent. Meet the Amarillo Sod Poodles. "Sod poodle" is an old pioneer nickname for the prairie dog, the little critter that pops out of holes all over the Panhandle.

Fans suggested more than 3,000 names in a name-the-team contest. Sod Poodles beat out finalists like the Jerky, the Boot Scooters, the Bronc Busters and the Long Haulers.

Then the Sod Poodles did something wild. In their very first season, 2019, they won the Texas League championship. Not bad for a team named after a prairie dog.

#6: Oprah on trial

In April 1996, on her talk show, Oprah Winfrey said a segment on mad cow disease had "just stopped me cold from eating another burger." Cattle prices dipped, Texas cattlemen blamed her, and they sued under the state's 1995 "veggie libel" law against false claims about food.

The trial was held right here in Amarillo, in the heart of cattle country. Oprah spent about six weeks in town and kept producing her show from Amarillo instead of taking a break.

On February 26, 1998, the jury ruled unanimously in her favor. Walking out of the courthouse, she said: "I refuse to be muzzled."

#5: The capital of the horse world

Amarillo is the headquarters of the American Quarter Horse Association, the world's largest equine breed registry. Since 1940, it has registered more than seven million American Quarter Horses worldwide. That's more horses than there are people in most U.S. states.

Right next door is the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum, honoring the fastest sprinters and greatest ranch horses in history.

#4: A free steak, if you can survive it

In Amarillo, dinner can be free if you can finish it. At the Big Texan Steak Ranch on Route 66, the famous 72-ounce steak challenge has been running since the early 1960s.

That's four and a half pounds of beef, plus three shrimp, a loaded baked potato, a salad, and a buttered roll. You have one hour. You have to stay seated, and nobody can help you. Finish it all, and the meal is free. Don't, and it's $72.

Nearly 95,000 people have tried. Only about 10,400 have won, roughly one in nine.

#3: A time capsule for the year 2968

Amarillo is known as the Helium Capital of the World. Helium plants began operating near the city in 1929, and for decades much of the gas that floats your birthday balloons came out of the ground here.

In 1968, to mark 100 years since helium was discovered in the sun's atmosphere, the city put up a six-story stainless steel monument that doubles as a giant sundial. Inside are time capsules set to open after 25, 50, 100 and 1,000 years. That last one won't be opened until 2968.

#2: America's nuclear workshop

Just outside Amarillo sits one of the most important places in America. The Pantex Plant is the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility, where warheads are built, taken apart and refurbished.

It began in 1942 as an Army ordnance plant during World War II. Today, it's one of the most secure sites in the country, quietly sitting in the middle of farm fields and cattle country.

#1: Cadillac Ranch

The most famous ten cars in Texas are buried nose-first in a cow pasture. Cadillac Ranch was installed in 1974 by an art collective called Ant Farm. Ten classic Cadillacs were planted in the ground near Route 66 at a steep 60-degree angle, said by legend to match the Great Pyramid of Giza.

In 1997, the whole thing was dug up and moved about two miles west to escape the growing city. And here's the best part: you're allowed to spray paint them. Visitors add new layers of color every day, so the cars never look the same twice.

So there you have it

  1. A baseball team named after prairie dogs
  2. Oprah on trial
  3. The horse capital of the world
  4. A free steak, if you can eat it
  5. A time capsule for the year 2968
  6. America's only nuclear weapons assembly plant
  7. Cadillacs buried in a field

Only in Amarillo. Which fact surprised you most? Tell me in the comments, and subscribe to 7 Crazy Facts for more cities.

Be sure to visit the YouTube channel 7 Crazy Facts for more great videos.

Learn about Amarillo Guided Tours.

Sources

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Crazy Facts About Edgewater, Colorado

Image
 Edgewater is not your average city, and here are seven crazy facts to prove it. This tiny Colorado city sits right on the edge of Denver, next to Sloan's Lake. Its history is packed with radio legends, a lost amusement park, and an elephant mystery that's still unsolved. Stay until the end, because number one is the strangest of all. #7: A city you can walk across in 20 minutes Edgewater is a full city that you can walk across in about 20 minutes. The whole thing covers less than one square mile, and around 5,000 people live there. It has its own mayor, its own city council and its own police force. But it can never grow. In the 1960s, Wheat Ridge and Lakewood incorporated around it, and with Denver on the other side, Edgewater got completely boxed in. It's a whole city, locked inside three others. #6: A radio station because Denver already had one Edgewater got a radio station because Denver couldn't. In 1926, a 19-year-old named Rex Howell bought a station called KFX...
Read more

7 Crazy Facts About Dallas

Image
Dallas, Texas. Big hats, big hair, big everything. But forget what you think you know. Here are seven crazy facts that are true about one city on Earth, and only one. No copycats, no ties. These belong to Dallas, and Dallas alone. Let's ride. #7: The flying red horse Dallas has a flying red horse watching over it. In 1934, the Magnolia Petroleum Company mounted a giant, rotating neon Pegasus on the roof of the Magnolia Building, then the tallest skyscraper in town. It was reportedly switched on to welcome oil executives arriving for a big petroleum convention, and for years it was the highest point on the skyline. Pilots reportedly claimed they could see its red glow from as far away as Waco. Rust finally brought it down in 1999, so the city built a replica that lit up at midnight to ring in the year 2000. The original was tracked down years later, restored, and now glows outside the Omni Dallas Hotel. Most cities have one icon. Dallas has the same icon twice. #6: The frozen cattle...
Read more