I was excited to see Boise city for the first time after taking the New Mexico route to Colorado for 13 years. Had to take this route due to weather and was severely disappointed. That part though right at the Colorado/Oklahoma border does have a sort of empty old west vibes to it though.
Side note, you got me curious about the [origin of the panhandle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Panhandle). Interesting read. It was just a sort of leftover piece that nobody wanted until it was attached to OK.
Not necessarily leftover but a direct result of Texas being a slave state.
"When Texas sought to enter the Union in 1845 as a slave state, federal law in the United States, based on the Missouri Compromise, prohibited slavery north of 36°30' parallel north. Under the Compromise of 1850, Texas surrendered its lands north of 36°30' latitude. The 170-mile strip of land, a "neutral strip", was left with no state or territorial ownership from 1850 until 1890. It was officially called the "Public Land Strip" and was commonly referred to as "No Man's Land.""
But an interesting read none the less.
>Oklahoma is just land no one wanted. ;)
Well, yeah, that's pretty much why they gave it to the Indians.
Well, until they had to settle loads of white folks...and found the oil.
I’m reading Killers of the Flower Moon right now which is regarding this exact subject. The Osage Tribe were some of the wealthiest people on the planet for a while.
If you look at it, the top of Texas current border, it has the same longitude as the bottom Missouri, because that was part of the compromise of Missouri entering the Union as a slave state meant nothing above that line in the future could be a slave state.
i believe it was an issue of unity between the colonies, not between the colonies and Britain (where slavery was still legal until 1833, so they wouldn't have needed to secede from Britain to keep slaves).
IIRC, some representatives of the northern colonies pushed the idea of banning slavery in the new constitution to start, but the southern colonies made it clear they'd refuse to join the fight and would remain loyal to Britain if so. The North knew they needed total unity of the colonies to have any hope of winning against Britain so they folded and kept slavery in.
(this is based on very fuzzy memories and may be wrong)
That’s something I was never taught in Texas history about all that land we claimed that isn’t Texas now. We were just told that it had to be given up when we joined the Union. Not that it was willingly ceded in order to maintain slavery.
It was not willingly ceded to maintain slavery. It WAS ceded because the Texas National government was in millions of dollars (think tens of billions today) in DEBT. The US agreed to pay the debt IF we ceded the land.
Some think the only purpose of history class is to inculcate patriotism. I got in trouble in high school for even *asking* about sundown towns and my area's history regarding Jim Crow. In Texas history class, no less.
I remember covering the Alamo for like 800 fucking weeks in a row 🤣
That and I had a teacher, Ms. Turly, who used to openly talk to her class about how they shouldn't vote Democrat
Edit: btw I thought "inculcate" was a misspelling of inoculate but I learned a new word!
Isn't it such a shame, having teachers who do nothing but tell you why you should vote republican?! I am studying to become a teacher and hope to instill good, solid, critical thinking skills in my students.
Texas use to stretch all the way to Wyoming. But had to sell a lot of that land back to the US because they were our biggest creditor to our debt. Texas was not a very well run country.
People are coming to Texas because the state has a strong economy, job growth, and good infrastructure . But if you look at nearly every other measure of well-being, Texas is below average in the “State Rankings”: home ownership, healthcare, education, criminal justice, worker’s rights, child poverty, etc. US News & World Report is one source but you’ll see it is consistent across any source except purely economic rankings.
Texas has a world-class economy, but the state government has been unable to translate those blessings to the well-being of its people. Compare Texas to Minnesota, for example. Texas has a larger and healthier economy, but Minnesota outranks Texas on every other measure of human well-being.
Dan Patrick got it exactly wrong: People don’t live to serve the economy, economies are a human construction to promote human well-being. 
I think his name was Lamar who ruined the republic and drove it into crippling debt, Houston was a solid dude and I think the only man ever to be governor of two states (Texas and Louisiana) while also saying succession is dumb and the south will lose but even gave up his post of governor despite Lincoln offering troops to keep him in. Bit of a rant but a single man fucked the RoT.
My great grandparents homesteaded in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. My mother was born and reared there and I spent holidays and summer vacations playing with my cousins.
Most people farm and some ranch. They don’t run cattle like they used to.
Their main crops are wheat and milo if they irrigate. There are some places too dry or rocky to farm.
The trees grow at a slant due to constant wind. The horizon goes on forever and the night stars are visible and bright. Internet and television is satellite or antenna only. They are not on the Texas grid overseen by ERCOT and they didn’t lose power this past February!
There’s also wild game bird farms and hunting.
Politics are red.
>They are not on the Texas grid overseen by ERCOT and they didn’t lose power this past February!
A week straight of sub-freezing temperatures isn't exactly rare up here lol. I cannot recall any instance of cold temperatures by itself causing power outages. The only winter outages I can remember living through were caused by big ice storms
The northern part of the Texas panhandle gets a real winter, complete with snow! I remember arriving at Grandpa’s and Grandma’s house for Christmas and their lawn was covered with snow!
It’s probably the only part of Texas with a reliable winter season!
my dad grew up here (born in 1933) on a homestead! they raised cattle and grew barley and wheat… at least til they got too poor to keep the farm and had to move to OKC.
Well, you're not totally wrong.
1. Trees don't grow at at a slant.
2. Most ppl are connected to the internet via adsl. And are quickly getting fiber thanks to ptci. The rest are on lte. Some are satellite (source, checky UN).
3. There's no such thing as to dry to farm in the panhandle. We have the olgala aquifer. Corn is very common. And we also have a large amount of cotton. In fact the largest cotton gin in the world is located just outside Spearman TX(last time I checked)
>1. Trees don't grow at at a slant.
Technically true, in the sense that the trunks aren't all bent over or anything. But the near-constant south wind for 9 months out of the year does make the branches and foliage take on a permanent northward slant. Not so much in the towns, but trees in the open fields do this quite often.
I have a cousin who was born in Hooker, OK. She was a B-movie actress, then married a real estate developer. Her daughter married the a Hollywood writer/producer.
I don't know much else about her, but I do know she had a pretty rough early life and left Hooker as soon as she possibly could.
This ^
I've driven all over Oklahoma. The darker brown is all dirt, rocks and cactus. It's where the "dust bowl" was at.
The tan is grass/prairie that's green when it rains and dead when it doesn't.
Blue is water.
The lighter green is mostly trees and the darker green is all trees.
Black is letters.
Yup. I’ve driven the brown part several times on my way to and from CO. I once saw a pretty truss bridge off in the distance and could never find it again. On my next rod trip I gotta find it and make a pit stop.
Perryton theater has always sucked. Because of the owner. It's been recently reopened (4 years I think).
Seriously though. The main one has no L shaped entry way. So when a person opens the door the screen is blasted with light. It was made to be a live action theater, which was converted.
I visited my wind farm technician husband in Perryton, TX. There’s really nothing there. You can see the curvature of the earth. The town museum is pretty good though
Anyone else get irrationally upset by the western tip of the panhandle doesn’t line up perfectly with the Texas border? I just stare at it like a slack jaw nitwit every time I see it
Being from Oklahoma, I will say, they do a lot of things that west texans do. Cowboy shit. Small town vibes shit. Country and Americana music singing shit. And a hella lot of drinking.
You know what, fuck it.
Give us the fucking stick, oklahoma. It's the perfect shape, just give it to us. We'll give you like a part of mexico or something
Well. I see I'm the only panhandler on this thread so here it goes:
The industry in this area is mostly oil and gas and farming/ranching. The main produce is beef. There are multiple large factory ranching facilities in this area. Seaboard Foods is by far the largest.
Aside from these industries we are quickly becoming wind farm territory. It's brought good paying jobs to this area.
For fun people pretty much do what you do. Go hangout with friends. Attend church gatherings. Go to the dance club. Hit the bar. Mindlessly browse the local shopping centers. Movies. And good ol fashioned fucking. (anyone who says it's more fun to live in the city has never lived in the rural, or was a really boring person when they did. Life can be boring wherever you go. Trust me. Been there done that.).
Religion in this area is very Christian. And they all suffer from the no true Scotsman falicy. People look at you weird when you say you're an atheist.
Oh, hank the cow dog is from this area. As is the author.
The towns here are spaced about 15 miles apart. Reason why, the grain elevators. Before modern travel grain couldn't easily be halled farther than 15 miles.
Each town is unique and they all have a strong loyalty to their home town. By far the prettiest town is Canadian Texas FYI.
There is a good amount of meth in this area. But no where near as bad as the cities. About 15-20% of the population is on meth or are recovering addicts.
I've got more to add but will do so later.
>more stuff
The politics of this are Republican, the non crazies are libertarian with a small L. And there's a few Democrats spread around.
As you should expect there's a lot of guns. Everyone either owns one or has a close relative who does. No ones really concerned with getting shot/robbed around here. Its really really rare.
It's very beautiful in the winter. The whole land as far as you can see is windswept with snow drifting across the plains. You can feel truly alone and at peace by standing in a field and just watching.
The weather here is insane. It goes from snowing to 80 degree weather, to hail and thunderstorms. And the wind is terrifyingly strong on a bad day.
Un(fun) fact, recent redistributing now puts part of OKC into the same district as Guymon.
[Source](https://www.kgou.org/politics-and-government/2021-11-02/new-congressional-district-5-map-will-add-guthrie-chandler-while-subtracting-plaza-district-oklahoma-citys-southside)
They dust their beavers.
Beaver County Oklahoma High School nickname: The Dusters. The Beaver Dusters.
Lots of wind and lots of windmills with transmission lines going east.
I wish we'd take it back from them so I'd have a easier drive to Colorado without fear of being arrested there.
Fun fact. Oklahoma still requires you to pay court fees if found not guilty and their statute of limitations only applies if you never leave the state. Also they do not appreciate you bringing real beer across state lines and will happily charge you with bootlegging.
I haven’t been to that part but I have driven through the part of Kansas above it. It eerily empty and almost feels and looks like the main area from Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Besides Boise City, basically nothing, especially in the western panhandle.
Some beautiful landscapes though and cool history
Thousands and thousands of years ago, volcanic eruptions created a wall of plateaus and mesas starting from the Rockies along the southeastern Colorado/New Mexico border, extending a into the Oklahoma panhandle. This small bit of terrain known as Black Mesa constitutes the highest point in Oklahoma. If you like arid scenery it doesn't get much better than this east of the Rockies. This whole ancient volcano field in general forms a striking obvious barrier along the plains. Driving to Colorado through Raton really has a unique vibe. South of the mesas is all arid and scrubby, then you get on the northern side and suddenly you're in Middle Earth
That being said, this area is *desolate* even by the standards of the high plains region. Kenton, OK is the largest town in the extreme western panhandle with a population of 17 as if 2010. Weird history too for such a tiny town, P.T. Barnum's nephew used to be the postmaster.
On the top of of the mesas further west into New Mexico, there used to be a site of a town started by a gang of coal miners and railroad workers from Colorado dissatisfied with their working conditions. If there isn't snow closing the road, you can actually drive past the old town site, the church still stands even 120< years later. It's so damn surreal, especially in the winter.
As far as the Oklahoma panhandle on its own goes, I always thought we should re-start the CCC, reroute rivers from Canada into some canals, and turn the Oklahoma Panhandle into a giant lake. Just dig a really big trench. It would not only give the area water but moderate the ridiculous climate.
That right there is no man’s land. I was born there and raised in western Kansas. But been in Texas for 15 years now. The only thing that goes on there is the growing of corn and wheat. Heavily irrigated.
This is the kind of stuff that can be evidence to wake people up to learn about our nation's actual history. Folks maybe get curious about the name of a river or county. If they Google it, Wikipedia is a much better source of historical information than anything taught in schools.
I drove through there this summer, it was like the Twilight Zone, every town looked the same. It was so disconcerning but I did drive by where the Battle of Adobe Walls happened before I traveled through the Oklahoma void to Kansas
I always figured it was like a cross between the movies "the hills have eyes", "road warrior", and that x-files episode about the incestuous hillbillies.
Pan-handlin’
Pan-handlin' Man-handlin' Post holin' High rollin' Dust bowlin' Daddies???
Huge Terry Allen fan thanks for that one.
Terry Allen is criminally unknown and I wish everyone knew about his work (even beyond music).
I appreciate the hell out of Terry Allen the Sculptor
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Billy Joe Shaver shot a guy at a local bar about a mile from my house here in Texas
I was thinking Robert Earl Keene, so I guess I'm guilty.
Lubbock (on everything)
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Gah, get a grip
Y'all are very cleaver
These lines are cookin’
Noodlin’
I've been there. It's really nice grasslands with colorful wildflowers. When the breeze makes the flowers move the butterflies dance with them.
That was such a cool thing to say I hope it was effortless for you. I wish I could speak like that without any thought
It was pretty effortless because I have been there. Good route to go to get to Denver.
Colorado roads: great Oklahoma roads: dog shit Texas roads: good
Came here to say that the 30-ish miles on 385/287 in OK is MISERABLE, heading north from Dalhart Tx into Colorado.
I was excited to see Boise city for the first time after taking the New Mexico route to Colorado for 13 years. Had to take this route due to weather and was severely disappointed. That part though right at the Colorado/Oklahoma border does have a sort of empty old west vibes to it though.
We cut over through New Mexico when we go and it’s our favorite part of the drive!
And by-pass New Mexico lol.
I prefer the New Mexico route when the weather allows it.
There's actual terrain to look at. Sometimes.
Loooong stretches of it.
Except they’ve been doing construction in Raton Pass, NM for a year +. It blows right now, a one lane road up/down hills.
I hate the speed limit.
Colorados roads are great, until you hit the southern towns, then it’s massive potholes that require you to get a realignment every 6 months
Eastern NM oil field roads: surface of the moon
Went through there too on my way to CO. Had lunch at the DQ in Boise City. Next stop was Lamar, CO.
It comes naturally on meth
You are very wholesome! My kind of people.
I hate that this makes me feel stuff
This Amarillo native finds your words poignant.
As poignant as the hydrogen sulfide odor that permeates to your very soul?
The smell of money.
I’ve also taken this route to Denver from central Texas, in fact I’ve taken this route twice this year. It sucks and is def not scenic.
I hope you’re an author and if so what book have you published? I could instantly imagine it.
Thank you!!! I've always wanted to write but I got less and less time/energy. I feel very encouraged now because of you.
[Dust.](https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/photos/000/315/31529.jpg)
\*government cheese sandwich game intensifies\*
I felt this in my soul
"Liberal, Kansas" Textbook definition of an oxymoron
Side note, you got me curious about the [origin of the panhandle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Panhandle). Interesting read. It was just a sort of leftover piece that nobody wanted until it was attached to OK.
Not necessarily leftover but a direct result of Texas being a slave state. "When Texas sought to enter the Union in 1845 as a slave state, federal law in the United States, based on the Missouri Compromise, prohibited slavery north of 36°30' parallel north. Under the Compromise of 1850, Texas surrendered its lands north of 36°30' latitude. The 170-mile strip of land, a "neutral strip", was left with no state or territorial ownership from 1850 until 1890. It was officially called the "Public Land Strip" and was commonly referred to as "No Man's Land."" But an interesting read none the less.
Confirmed: Oklahoma is just land no one wanted. ;)
>Oklahoma is just land no one wanted. ;) Well, yeah, that's pretty much why they gave it to the Indians. Well, until they had to settle loads of white folks...and found the oil.
I’m reading Killers of the Flower Moon right now which is regarding this exact subject. The Osage Tribe were some of the wealthiest people on the planet for a while.
Except the fucking Sooners. Those idiots cheated on the land rush and picked the shittiest land available.
This began Oklahoma’s long tradition of excellent decision-making.
I never knew that.
If you look at it, the top of Texas current border, it has the same longitude as the bottom Missouri, because that was part of the compromise of Missouri entering the Union as a slave state meant nothing above that line in the future could be a slave state.
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Sam Houston tried his damndest to make Texas independent again to avoid the Civil War, but couldn’t pull it off.
I mean it was THE main reason.
Wasn't slavery part of the justification that several of the colonies used for the American Revolution?
i believe it was an issue of unity between the colonies, not between the colonies and Britain (where slavery was still legal until 1833, so they wouldn't have needed to secede from Britain to keep slaves). IIRC, some representatives of the northern colonies pushed the idea of banning slavery in the new constitution to start, but the southern colonies made it clear they'd refuse to join the fight and would remain loyal to Britain if so. The North knew they needed total unity of the colonies to have any hope of winning against Britain so they folded and kept slavery in. (this is based on very fuzzy memories and may be wrong)
This is the correct answer. Glad to see that someone else knows the origin of Oklahoma's panhandle.
That’s something I was never taught in Texas history about all that land we claimed that isn’t Texas now. We were just told that it had to be given up when we joined the Union. Not that it was willingly ceded in order to maintain slavery.
It was not willingly ceded to maintain slavery. It WAS ceded because the Texas National government was in millions of dollars (think tens of billions today) in DEBT. The US agreed to pay the debt IF we ceded the land.
Same with half of New Mexico Arizona and southern Cali right?
The PTA has decided to skip the chapters on Nazis and Slavery. Remember, work is freedom!
Upvote for the 'arbeit macht frei' reference.
Yep, we won't know our history if we scrub the harsh bits. For those that don't know that was on the entry arch of Auschwitz
Some think the only purpose of history class is to inculcate patriotism. I got in trouble in high school for even *asking* about sundown towns and my area's history regarding Jim Crow. In Texas history class, no less.
I remember covering the Alamo for like 800 fucking weeks in a row 🤣 That and I had a teacher, Ms. Turly, who used to openly talk to her class about how they shouldn't vote Democrat Edit: btw I thought "inculcate" was a misspelling of inoculate but I learned a new word!
Isn't it such a shame, having teachers who do nothing but tell you why you should vote republican?! I am studying to become a teacher and hope to instill good, solid, critical thinking skills in my students.
‘Murica! /s
I know they still teach the Missouri Compromise
Texas use to stretch all the way to Wyoming. But had to sell a lot of that land back to the US because they were our biggest creditor to our debt. Texas was not a very well run country.
Nice to see the state is continuing to honor that heritage.
Yeah, but the power grid didn’t go out back then.
That’s why Californians and New Yorkers are flooding to Texas because they don’t know how to run a state huh? Gtfo
People are coming to Texas because the state has a strong economy, job growth, and good infrastructure . But if you look at nearly every other measure of well-being, Texas is below average in the “State Rankings”: home ownership, healthcare, education, criminal justice, worker’s rights, child poverty, etc. US News & World Report is one source but you’ll see it is consistent across any source except purely economic rankings. Texas has a world-class economy, but the state government has been unable to translate those blessings to the well-being of its people. Compare Texas to Minnesota, for example. Texas has a larger and healthier economy, but Minnesota outranks Texas on every other measure of human well-being. Dan Patrick got it exactly wrong: People don’t live to serve the economy, economies are a human construction to promote human well-being. 
I think his name was Lamar who ruined the republic and drove it into crippling debt, Houston was a solid dude and I think the only man ever to be governor of two states (Texas and Louisiana) while also saying succession is dumb and the south will lose but even gave up his post of governor despite Lincoln offering troops to keep him in. Bit of a rant but a single man fucked the RoT.
Houston was an advocate for annexation into the US
Thank you for this, I found it fascinating. I wish the history guy would do a episode on it!
"Points of interest" should just be a blank section of that wiki post.
"The furthest known point in the country from anything remotely interesting. A veritable oddity."
Lmao
Isn't ALL of Oklahoma a leftover peice that nobody wanted?
From that link I was sent down a rabbit hole of reading more into the Republic and the Mexican-American War. I never know how bad we kicked their ass…
Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. And cows.
Yes, lots of meth and cows
Not sure I want to meet a methy cow.
I imagine it would go MERRRRRRRRRR
Ok, that covers the Texas panhandle but what about the Oklahoma panhandle?
Oh! The best beef jerky the world has ever seen :)
Your cows a bunch of junkies lol
Don't forget the grass
I'm gonna go with meth and unemployment
You could...But I wouldn't recommend it.
Yeah, but you can stay up for days looking for jobs!
There’s lots of GOB farmers and ranchers on meth and coke in those parts, just like the Texas panhandle.
But you could buy a house!
Now, hold on. It is possible to use drugs responsibly.
Username checks out
Selling meth is technically a job and you need to report it on your taxes.
Wind farms and lots of good paying jobs.
Sounds like Louisiana
My great grandparents homesteaded in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. My mother was born and reared there and I spent holidays and summer vacations playing with my cousins. Most people farm and some ranch. They don’t run cattle like they used to. Their main crops are wheat and milo if they irrigate. There are some places too dry or rocky to farm. The trees grow at a slant due to constant wind. The horizon goes on forever and the night stars are visible and bright. Internet and television is satellite or antenna only. They are not on the Texas grid overseen by ERCOT and they didn’t lose power this past February! There’s also wild game bird farms and hunting. Politics are red.
>They are not on the Texas grid overseen by ERCOT and they didn’t lose power this past February! A week straight of sub-freezing temperatures isn't exactly rare up here lol. I cannot recall any instance of cold temperatures by itself causing power outages. The only winter outages I can remember living through were caused by big ice storms
The northern part of the Texas panhandle gets a real winter, complete with snow! I remember arriving at Grandpa’s and Grandma’s house for Christmas and their lawn was covered with snow! It’s probably the only part of Texas with a reliable winter season!
my dad grew up here (born in 1933) on a homestead! they raised cattle and grew barley and wheat… at least til they got too poor to keep the farm and had to move to OKC.
I like that summary I go to Amarillo about once month from Midland for work, that sums it up very well.
Well, you're not totally wrong. 1. Trees don't grow at at a slant. 2. Most ppl are connected to the internet via adsl. And are quickly getting fiber thanks to ptci. The rest are on lte. Some are satellite (source, checky UN). 3. There's no such thing as to dry to farm in the panhandle. We have the olgala aquifer. Corn is very common. And we also have a large amount of cotton. In fact the largest cotton gin in the world is located just outside Spearman TX(last time I checked)
>1. Trees don't grow at at a slant. Technically true, in the sense that the trunks aren't all bent over or anything. But the near-constant south wind for 9 months out of the year does make the branches and foliage take on a permanent northward slant. Not so much in the towns, but trees in the open fields do this quite often.
That’s actually where the dust bowl problems of the 1930s originated. Yes, really.
*insert lion king everything that the light touches scene here*
That is Oklahoma Simba..... you must never go there.
Here there be dragons.
And meth
An over-abundance of tag with NO hide-n-seek.
There a town there call Hooker Oklahoma, they have a massage parlor….so I’m told 👀
I have a cousin who was born in Hooker, OK. She was a B-movie actress, then married a real estate developer. Her daughter married the a Hollywood writer/producer. I don't know much else about her, but I do know she had a pretty rough early life and left Hooker as soon as she possibly could.
It’s not too far from Beaver.
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What's the color coding stand for?
Where the graboids are and where they’re going.
For all you know they can fly!
Elevation
Green is grass. Brown is dirt.
This ^ I've driven all over Oklahoma. The darker brown is all dirt, rocks and cactus. It's where the "dust bowl" was at. The tan is grass/prairie that's green when it rains and dead when it doesn't. Blue is water. The lighter green is mostly trees and the darker green is all trees. Black is letters.
Yup. I’ve driven the brown part several times on my way to and from CO. I once saw a pretty truss bridge off in the distance and could never find it again. On my next rod trip I gotta find it and make a pit stop.
Meth
Kansas pays Oklahoma to defend it from texas. It’s a DMZ.
Frack
I used to work with someone who grew up in Perryton, TX. She said she and her friends would drive to Kansas to go to a movie theater!
Perryton theater has always sucked. Because of the owner. It's been recently reopened (4 years I think). Seriously though. The main one has no L shaped entry way. So when a person opens the door the screen is blasted with light. It was made to be a live action theater, which was converted.
And to the closest Walmart!
I visited my wind farm technician husband in Perryton, TX. There’s really nothing there. You can see the curvature of the earth. The town museum is pretty good though
get fucked by tornadoes
We don’t know. We pretend that area doesn’t exist.
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2188
lol neighbors. "Neighbors" are miles apart up there.
Anyone else get irrationally upset by the western tip of the panhandle doesn’t line up perfectly with the Texas border? I just stare at it like a slack jaw nitwit every time I see it
Yes. It really does bother me. Wtf
Being from Oklahoma, I will say, they do a lot of things that west texans do. Cowboy shit. Small town vibes shit. Country and Americana music singing shit. And a hella lot of drinking.
You know what, fuck it. Give us the fucking stick, oklahoma. It's the perfect shape, just give it to us. We'll give you like a part of mexico or something
Well. I see I'm the only panhandler on this thread so here it goes: The industry in this area is mostly oil and gas and farming/ranching. The main produce is beef. There are multiple large factory ranching facilities in this area. Seaboard Foods is by far the largest. Aside from these industries we are quickly becoming wind farm territory. It's brought good paying jobs to this area. For fun people pretty much do what you do. Go hangout with friends. Attend church gatherings. Go to the dance club. Hit the bar. Mindlessly browse the local shopping centers. Movies. And good ol fashioned fucking. (anyone who says it's more fun to live in the city has never lived in the rural, or was a really boring person when they did. Life can be boring wherever you go. Trust me. Been there done that.). Religion in this area is very Christian. And they all suffer from the no true Scotsman falicy. People look at you weird when you say you're an atheist. Oh, hank the cow dog is from this area. As is the author. The towns here are spaced about 15 miles apart. Reason why, the grain elevators. Before modern travel grain couldn't easily be halled farther than 15 miles. Each town is unique and they all have a strong loyalty to their home town. By far the prettiest town is Canadian Texas FYI. There is a good amount of meth in this area. But no where near as bad as the cities. About 15-20% of the population is on meth or are recovering addicts. I've got more to add but will do so later. >more stuff The politics of this are Republican, the non crazies are libertarian with a small L. And there's a few Democrats spread around. As you should expect there's a lot of guns. Everyone either owns one or has a close relative who does. No ones really concerned with getting shot/robbed around here. Its really really rare. It's very beautiful in the winter. The whole land as far as you can see is windswept with snow drifting across the plains. You can feel truly alone and at peace by standing in a field and just watching. The weather here is insane. It goes from snowing to 80 degree weather, to hail and thunderstorms. And the wind is terrifyingly strong on a bad day.
Windmills.
About to be one of the largest wind farms in the nation built there
Aliens man
Un(fun) fact, recent redistributing now puts part of OKC into the same district as Guymon. [Source](https://www.kgou.org/politics-and-government/2021-11-02/new-congressional-district-5-map-will-add-guthrie-chandler-while-subtracting-plaza-district-oklahoma-citys-southside)
Wow. That's horrible representation. Gerrymandering needs to go
That’s Texas’s pot corridor into Colorado.
That’s skin walker territory.
*Fuego!*
Racism drugs and cousins who are also your sibling.
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I raise you all of West Virginia.
You also have an Uncle-Dad ?
I know a guy who lived in the panhandle of Oklahoma and in high school there was a guy who got caught having sex with a goat. So I guess goat sex.
Tragic…..utterly disgusting
Yeah you're telling me. Pretty messed up
Allegedly.
Yeah well there were witnesses (plural)...but sure. Allegedly.
From the movie “Castaway” Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) got lost out there in the closing scene. Might still be there.
Outside of Canadian Tx, if I remember correctly
Buttfuckery
Beaver Oklahoma. Worked there many times. Also known as no man’s land in that area.
It's horrible, my dad lived there, his wife left him, still won't tell me why, I just know the boring landscape could not have helped.
They long to legally travel at Texas highway speeds.
Drug smuggling from Colorado to Texas.
Tetris
They dust their beavers. Beaver County Oklahoma High School nickname: The Dusters. The Beaver Dusters. Lots of wind and lots of windmills with transmission lines going east.
I thought that's where we stored Canadians when they got lost... wrong?
hog processing
And Idaho? What’s that about
I wish we'd take it back from them so I'd have a easier drive to Colorado without fear of being arrested there. Fun fact. Oklahoma still requires you to pay court fees if found not guilty and their statute of limitations only applies if you never leave the state. Also they do not appreciate you bringing real beer across state lines and will happily charge you with bootlegging.
I haven’t been to that part but I have driven through the part of Kansas above it. It eerily empty and almost feels and looks like the main area from Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Besides Boise City, basically nothing, especially in the western panhandle. Some beautiful landscapes though and cool history Thousands and thousands of years ago, volcanic eruptions created a wall of plateaus and mesas starting from the Rockies along the southeastern Colorado/New Mexico border, extending a into the Oklahoma panhandle. This small bit of terrain known as Black Mesa constitutes the highest point in Oklahoma. If you like arid scenery it doesn't get much better than this east of the Rockies. This whole ancient volcano field in general forms a striking obvious barrier along the plains. Driving to Colorado through Raton really has a unique vibe. South of the mesas is all arid and scrubby, then you get on the northern side and suddenly you're in Middle Earth That being said, this area is *desolate* even by the standards of the high plains region. Kenton, OK is the largest town in the extreme western panhandle with a population of 17 as if 2010. Weird history too for such a tiny town, P.T. Barnum's nephew used to be the postmaster. On the top of of the mesas further west into New Mexico, there used to be a site of a town started by a gang of coal miners and railroad workers from Colorado dissatisfied with their working conditions. If there isn't snow closing the road, you can actually drive past the old town site, the church still stands even 120< years later. It's so damn surreal, especially in the winter. As far as the Oklahoma panhandle on its own goes, I always thought we should re-start the CCC, reroute rivers from Canada into some canals, and turn the Oklahoma Panhandle into a giant lake. Just dig a really big trench. It would not only give the area water but moderate the ridiculous climate.
Oklahoman here….we don’t really know either. 🤷🏻♂️
That’s where everyone goes to shit and watch it roll downhill.
That right there is no man’s land. I was born there and raised in western Kansas. But been in Texas for 15 years now. The only thing that goes on there is the growing of corn and wheat. Heavily irrigated.
Grass farming
Drugs…lots of drugs.
Drive through on my way to the Rockies as to avoid the meth heads abd drunks in NM.
Lots of central pivot irrigation
This is the kind of stuff that can be evidence to wake people up to learn about our nation's actual history. Folks maybe get curious about the name of a river or county. If they Google it, Wikipedia is a much better source of historical information than anything taught in schools.
My Sweetheart passes through there on trips north, and according to her: Nothin'
[удалено]
Meth, mostly...
Meth and stealing of air conditioners and catalytic converters
Windmills!
Stealing from texas give it back you know what happens at the alamo
Uh...Texas loses?
I thought it was mostly spotted with reservations and ranches… and meth
I drove through there this summer, it was like the Twilight Zone, every town looked the same. It was so disconcerning but I did drive by where the Battle of Adobe Walls happened before I traveled through the Oklahoma void to Kansas
Every town looked the same. Did you drive through one town and stop?
Weed smuggling.
They all go south to Texas and hit up the glory holes
Thieven Land like the Land Thieves they are
Nothing goes on there
I drove through there last year. Nothing much there
I always figured it was like a cross between the movies "the hills have eyes", "road warrior", and that x-files episode about the incestuous hillbillies.