Exploring the american story. Book tv, American History tv, we travel to amarillo texas. Well experience in the city of about 200,000 starting with an the largest canyon. And then we will learn about kansas citys developments on amarillo. And then step in a specially made rail card used to move Nuclear Material around the United States. Later a trip to the panhandle plains. We start at the canyon state park. The experience today is a lot like it has been. Even today it is quite a sharking experience. The fact that i get to come see this every day sometimes i have to take in. The canyon has been forming for about a million years or so. It runs from here over to silverton. You can make a good case that it is at least 80 miles in length itself. It is the second largest canyon in the United States. Its not a single canyon. There are many that branch off to the sides. Were standing in an area now where we can see three canyons from where were at right now. Its much bigger than people realize even from a brief visit to the state park. I grew up here in al rill low. We could go explore some of the caves. It is a lot bigger than you think it is. When you get your stick and your boots on make sure you have a lot of water because it is much further than you think. There is all kinds of treasures out there we have been looking for. One of the draws, i guess, is just being around extreme nature. This is, you could say, is ek treatment nature. You can see these beautiful cliffs and rock out croppings. The only footage you had from out here were help cop ter shic out here you would get footage, and when drones took off, i had my drone out here and it helped so much having all of that experience and knowledge of where to go to look at these things from looking from the ground up. I knew where to go to get the view from the air down. I executed as much as i could. You can stay on the trail and be suitably amazed with everything that you see and there is plenty to look at and there are so many place thats are just off of the trail. It is a story of edges, you know, were on the edge of a lot of different ranges for plants and animals here. Were on the edge literally of a canyon right now and also a place that has been on the edge of these battles, these conflicts, between different cultures. For the vast majority of the canyon they came here and they were nomadic. They lived in temporary structures. They were mostly following large game. In the earliest days it was large exstinct species of mammoth. Later than that we get into a historic or late prehistoric period where they were kind of the image you think of when you think of native americans. This was the southern planes region. And towards the end of the Southern Plains way of life here, it became like a stronghold for people who were trying to escape from the soldiers, the settlers, the hunters, and because this was right in the center of camanche territory, they had thousands of years of experience coming into the area. And there was a series of battles in 1874 that became known as the red river war. The most decisive battle happened here in september of 18 1874. And the camanche set up a campground and they were under the mistaken impression they would be safe. They didnt realize they sent five separate columns of troops into the area to look for them. And to try to force them back on the reservation. So the fourth calvary, they dismounted their horses. These are calvary men, they brought hem to the canyon floor and they remounted. And it is not a battle that had a high casualty count. It was more of a route. Imagine waking up and youre laying there with your wife, husband, aunt, grandmother, all of these people are with you and you walk up to armed soldiers attacking your town, what would do you . They did the only thing they could do which was to flee. So they ran setting up Little Pockets of resistance trying to hold them off long enough to escape. And most were very successful in getting away. They were not able to take much with them and that gave them the opportunity to gom back and destroy their winter encampment and supplies, and for the camanche, that was a big blow. In the next few weeks and months they slowly trickled back in and that ended the southern planes way of life. In just a couple of years a new group came in and saw the opportunity of this empty place, empty of people, at least, and those were ranchers. The first here to set up a permanent ranch was charles goodnight. All of the way through most of the 1880s and it was about 1. 3 million acres at its largest size. It was one of the biggest ranches in texas and a lot of that encompassed parts of the canyon behind us. It was great grazing land for bison and for the cattle they brought in, also. The ranching period in this spot where were standing lasted until 1933. So this was a working cattle ranch. And the state of texas purchased about 15,000 acres that became the original state park. The people of the area had a very strong desire to have a park here. Prior to this being a park, if you didnt know someone that owned some of the land you had to trespass to go out and see it. It was all privately owned and the landowner here had events to allow people to come out on their property and visit the canyon. Sometimes tens of thousands of people would come, they wanted a park here, they knew how important it was to protect and how big of a boom to the area it would be having people come from all around to see it. It continues all around us. And it is part of what makes it so special. We would not have a park here if it was not for the civilian conservation core. They were a new deal relief effort. One of the many groups started by president roosevelt and they arrived here very shortly after the creation of the ccc. One of the old eest parks in texas. They got here in the summer of 1933 and set up their camp. And they worked on the corrode road into the canyon. Its a reminder i give myself all of the time when i come down. They built this road by hand. Basically for 1 a day. And it changed their lives in that they were able to feed themselves and provide for their families. Without their work we would not have everything that we have today. You know being up here there is not a lot of written history to go back to and look at. This is one of those places that you can go back and look at the history. You have the mortar stones. A rock that has art from probably thousands or 2,000 years ago. It is not as vivid as it was back in the day. I like that connection being able to look at history that is more than just your grandfathers history. We want people to visit them, and join in, when i ask them, who owns the canyon and they say me, i do, you do, and it would be we want them understand how critical they are to the mission and to the stewardship of this place. Just south is the museum in canyon texas. We go inside as we hear the kansas city influence. I think people around here know a lot about the ranching history in this area. Texas tends to be about itself. I think this particular history is more of a middle american re regional story that has not been told. One of the things that we talk about on this show is we pitched it as looking without rather than looking within. The museum is the largest historic Historical Museum in the state of texas. So michael grouer. Were both native to kansas city and we were interested in why this place felt so familiar to us. Michael started to look at the number of objects in the panhandle planes permanent collection, and it turns out there was over like 1,000 objects so we started looking at what kinds of octobers there were and we found such a good array that we felt we needed to do a show that told the city cityhood. Many would think they looked to dallas, denver, houston, but this closeness is basically around the train system and the cattle industry. We tell the story of that in the show. In the 1870s, cattle were being driven and walked across the plains. Long horns were the best kind of walking cattle for those drives but theyre not the best beef cattle. So the railroad cut through this year and it founded amarillo. So it didnt exist and by that time there was more shipping of the cattle on the rails rather than doing the drives any more. And so by the time that kansas city and amarillo were links, their Cattle Market started to really book based on the cattle being raised in the panhandle. And the other aspect is like the culture and fashion and objects in the museum that tell the story of going to kansas city that were bringing goods and Services Back here. The cowboys would go shopping, we didnt have local Business Owners that could sell those items. I think people can really understand. It is local and regional history and a national history. It works on a number of levels. We have a newspaper that is dated to the era of the town northwest of amarillo. There was Oil Discovered in the town and there was a huge influx in investment money. And so what we have in this image is kansas city newspaper featuring amarillo as the wonder city of the texas panhandle. So the idea that the little amarillo city was the wonder city of the texas panhandle, that is something that today sounds Old Fashioned but i think it was very true back then. We also have a blueprint above and it is by an architect that i think deserves his own study. We have an image of the United States with the city of amarillo that is larger than any other city and it is showing the networking of amarillo as a crossroads. It also says ideal location for capital and industries. And you can see it is just one straight shot of a line and it is a quicker line to dallas. So these two objects help tell that story. So were standing in front of another object that was an artist that was an architect. He studied for a few years in kansas, for college, and then he got a job at the Santa Fe Railroad. When he didnt get the raid he wanted after a few years of very good work. He found his own firm and basically he lived out his life being a am riarillo citizen. Here is his signature and also of the skyline. After oil was discovered in the region in 1926, there was a space. There was more skyscrapers that were erected in amarillo. These were seven to ten stories all. One of the things we did in the promotion of this show. They talk about the line that a building, as high as a building ought to go. The seven stories. What you can see here is that he is proud of the skylines. He designed the baptist church. He designed the Fisk Building here. The house in downtown amarillo. Amarillo went from the horse and buggy to the streetcars to automobiles. Because it has the route 66 connection, it becomes an automobile city very quickly. You can see evidence of that in the structures. It is a big urban center and it is interesting how the development of the cities in the west occurred. It is not as appreciated as it was in the United States development. We were tieing those two together and i think people can really understand beyond this area, it is a local history, also a regional history and a national history. It works on a number of levels. Amarillo is the center of the state, and were approaching 200,000 people. I think in the next census we will cross the 200,000 mark. That is a mile marker for us. As i travel around and talk to other mayors, i think our super power here in the city of amarillo is that we think regionally. While duo have geographic boundaries that define how many people live in our city we dont think that way. Right now were in the historic santa fe depot. When you think about building the city of amarillo the materials came through this depot. They arrived right here. And our city has grown and we started as a farming and agricultural town and now were an urban center for the texas panhandle of 500,000 people. None of that could have happened without this location being right here by the rail and so much of our industry and just our materials to live day today life came right here. Of course the depot is vacant. Were not using it today as a train station welcome b, but we significant hub. It is important in the coast to coast travel of marketing goods by rail, were still an important part of that. The reason that amarillo was such a key point is the cattle industry. We traded back and forth through kansas city. Wheat, cotton, corn, we shipped them all the nation. It is such a difficult area to get to. It expanded the food flee. If it was in the 1890s or the 1950s, it was all of a panhandle economy. I think we are isolated. From a geographic point of view, were the spot that everyone comes to, but were the spot. So it is hard for us to change sometimes because we get set in our ways. Continue to have a mindset. It could be a weakness. We like to solve our own problems. We dont typically look to a government or someone else. We like to if we have a challenge we just put our hands to the plow and we push harder and work harder until we figure out the solution on our own. I love that Pioneering Spirit in our community. Were very interested in both local politics, statewide politics, and national politics. Everyone is interested in the election coming up in november of 2020. One of your districts here, our Congressional District is known as the most conservative district in the nation. They go back and look at our voting records, we vote republican more than any other district in the country. So it makes us an interesting blip on the there are asimpgss that go along with that and it unt always draw them. And i think were poised at a renaissance. Were pausing a lot of momentum. There is a curiosity about the city, as people watch us move up through this renaissance, through the arts, culture, and the props of working together, i think that will be a really exciting 20 years for amarillo. The plant in texas is the nations primary is going to be different. For about 30 years the safest method for the transportation of this material was by rail. Looky of pantex with the visit to the Amarillo Railroad Museum where several cars once used by the plant are now on display. Were trying to preserve the rich history in the texas panhandle. Most of these towns wouldnt be here if it werent for the coming of the railroad. We realized that the railroads were evolving and changing. We were seeing newer locomotives coming on and seeing so many changes. We need to preserve some of that before it disappears. We incorporated the Amarillo Railroad Museum with that goal to preserve it. It was after we incorporated that we brought this property here in the northeast part of amarillo and, i mean, it already had the Railroad Track on it. And weve been, you know, keeping our eyes open for opportunities to acquire certain pieces of Rolling Stock and we were fortunate to get the cars from the formerly called white train used for transporting Nuclear Weapons. And at least here, we can display them so people can see these things that they wouldnt be able to see anywhere else. Right here, this row of cars i have set up kind of in the way that the white train used to operate. On the end is the escort coach kr the coupola. Next to it is whats called the buffer car. By law, people cannot ride in a car adjacent to explosives. That red car, third car from the end, thats the soul surviving of the armor plated cargo cars. Around 1980, for protecting the Nuclear Weapons and that is the the soul survivor. Its an elevated area. You can see weve got bulletresistant glass all around us. This is kind of the security perch of where the couriers would be. There would be at least two up here at all times watching to ensure that there isnt any intruders trying to get on the train while they are hauling the Nuclear Weapons or components throughout the complex. Just in case there would be any difficulties with anybody trying to get on the train, there are these gun portals here and theyre blocked off right now, but the couriers could use those if they needed to. So pantex today is the primary assembly and disassembly facility for Nuclear Weapons in the United States. But the story of pantex really begins in 1941 when the japanese attacked pearl harbor. That really lauvenlged the United States into world war ii. Prior to that, we had many programs with our future allies, but pantex comes to be an assembly packed plant to build 250pound bombs and 500pound bombs and 23pound fragmentation bombs. We built conventional weapons in world war ii. Amarillo makes it a great location. Where pantex exists is no accident. It exists there because of the railroad. The railroad is hugely important for transporting goods during world war ii. Its the most reliable means of transportation. Remember 1942, we dont have a national highway system. Theres no easy way to move goods through the United States reliably like that. So the railroad becomes the means of transportation. So one of the first things that they do when they select the land is they lay spurs off of the Main Railroad line there and so they can direct those and they are able to build pantex so quickly because they bring those materials in the railroad and to where theyre building. So they lay down spurs and it goes right to where theyre putting the load lines, and they would bring in the metal shelves and any of the explosives, the explosive materials via the railroad as well into there. Amarillo, because were a railroad center, its a great place to build pantex as well as the Amarillo Army air field, constructed in 1941. It existed really close where the amarillo airport is today and so because amarillo is an Army Ordinance plant and then we have an army air field, theyre able to share a guard force and cross train. So its pretty efficient. Amarillo also had a decentsize population and youre going to need workers. Pantex, at the height of our employment in 1943, we had over 5,000 employees. And all of those people needed a place to live. And amarillo being so close provided that. A lot of Housing Options for people to live so that pantex could have the size of workforce it needed to complete our world war ii mission. Pantex, throughout the cold war, has a remarkably consistent mission. And our mission was to build and dismantle Nuclear Weapons. Weve become, since 1975, the primary nuclear disassembly site in the United States. The next Mission Change or mission shift, i should say, is in 1991 when the first president bush gives his speech on unilateral dismantlement, that the United States would take it upon itself to start dismantling some of its Nuclear Weapons stockpile. We now have an unparalleled opportunity to change the Nuclear Posture of both the United States and the soviet union. If we and the soviet leaders take the right steps, some on our own, some on their own, some together, we can traumatically shrink the arsenal of the worlds Nuclear Weapons. We can more effectively discourage the spread of Nuclear Weapons. We can rely more on defensive measures in our strategic relationship. We can enhance stability and actually reduce the risk of nuclear war. Now is the time to seize this opportunity. The soviet union was sort of coming to an end when president bush gives this speech. It still exists but then a few month later the soviet union falls. Once the cold war is ultimately over, we start to shift to dismantlement. So pantex still has its vital function of dismantling our Nuclear Weapons stockpile and figuring out how to dispose of certain materials within a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, today, were focused on life Extension Programs so that we ensure that we have a safe, reliable stockpile for the future, for the United States to be credible nuclear deterrent. When we started building Nuclear Weapons in the 1950s, we did not have a highway system. There was not a highway system in this country. So most everyone and Everything Travel bid train, by rail than by highway. In the meantime, to move the goods, these rail cars were specially designed for carrying Nuclear Weapons safely. The cspan cities tour is exploring the american story, taking book tv and American History tv on the road every third weekend of the month. To watch videos from any of the places weve been, go to cspan. Org citiestour and follow us on twitter cspancities. Established in 1926, u. S. Route 66 was one of the original highways in the u. S. Highway system over 240 miles from chicago, illinois, to santa monica, california. In their book a matter of time route 66 through the lens of change, photographer and historian nick gerlach capture scenes along the route that speak to its past. While in amarillo, we road along with gerlich, following the path of the old highway. Why do you think this highway is still popular today even after decades after it was decommissioned . It has a lot to do with nostalgia today. People want to revisit places that maybe they experienced as a child. Thats a huge part of nostalgia. Theres another nostalgia as well acres stier to visit a place in the past that you never experienced. And so for younger americans and for International Tourists of all ages for whom route 66 was only something they may have heard about, coming to do route 66 by car or motorcycle or bicycle today is getting to visit a distant past that theyve only seen in books. When route 66 came to town in 1926, the airport, at least our modern airport, was not here. Today you can run into a fence that is now protecting the modern airport but the road kept going. In fact, amarillo is one of three cities along route 66 in which the road is now buried by the modern airport. Amarillo, santa rosa, new mexico, and st. Louis, missouri. Right up ahead here is where the fence and the gate are. And if you get up high enough on a ladder or on top of a vehicle, you can see a bit of concrete from the 1920s that was still left here. It exists just beyond the outer ring road of the airport and runs up to one of the current runways. I just saw a plane take off here and literally crossed over route 66. So its still there. Hardly anybody knows about this little fragment of the road thats hiding in plain sight. Right beyond that gate is where the old road was and still is. Where did the idea for this book start . Ellen and i met on facebook. It sounds cliche, but we did, in several facebook groups for route 66. She and her husband, in germany, had been wanting to pursue a book project as they had been over to america a couple of times prior and had done a lot of photography on the road. And they wanted to partner with someone from america, who knew the route and was prepared to write about it. We kind of had a blind date in may of 2015. They asked if i would like to meet them for dinner and i said of course i would love to do that. We met, had dinner. They pitched the idea and we all fell in love with each other. From that point forward, ellen and i started working on the structure of the book, where we wanted it to go, what kind of shots, what kind of narrations we wanted, and her husband, udo, who was already an accomplished author, had decided he was going to be our manager. He kept us on task through all of that. So we began our joint efforts in september of 2015 on one of their subsequent trips, and we traveled extensively the next three years, visiting many sites all along route 66 so that i could experience what ellen was experiencing and more specifically what she was seeing through the lens of her camera. And that had a big part in the naming of our book a matter of time route 66 through the lens of change. It was not just a clever word play. It was really, truly, what we were doing. We wanted to chronicle change thats a recurring theme in the classes i teach as well. I think its important to know your history hourks it all began. And then its important to take note of where you are today because the only way to plan for the future is to know your past and your present. And thats what we wanted to do with the book. In those photos, we were able to chronicle the decay of many things that were once prospering along 66 but also the emergence of new businesses along 66 as well as the evolution of older businesses, because 66 isnt dead yet i dont think it will ever be dead. Parts of it are, but parts of it are very much alive. We wanted to focus on how things changed. Some things didnt change for the best but other things did change very well. People have evolved, businesses have evolved and theyre still out there, meeting the needs of tourists today. Okay. Were coming into downtown amarillo and were going to stop and look at this hotel built in 1956. 5 1 2 months, a 13story building, absolutely amazing someone could do that in 5 1 2 months. It was situated just feet off route 66. It had a soft opening on december 15th, 1926, which was only a month and four days after the birth of route 66. And they had a big gala new years eve of 26 and then they were in business for good. Its an amazing hotel. Its been abandoned for many years and it needs a lot of money and a lot of tlc, but it could be something again. This had 600 rooms. It also had people who lived at it. In other words it had condos before condos were a thing. Folks had fullsized living quarters, apartments on the upper floors. And this is where the movers and shakers stayed. The basement had a club where oil barons would hang out and do business back in the days. On the second floor, there was a coffee shop. There was also a big ballroom on the second floor. This was the premier establishment in amarillo. So were on southwest six, route 66 going into town. We have the Historic Courthouse and library on the right, juxtaposed with nice, modern structures all reflecting surfaces right across the street. The First Bank Southwest Building a couple of blocks down the road is the tallest building between amarillo and excuse me, its the tallest building between ft. Worth and denver at 31 stories, but right ahead here is the barfield building, undergoing renovations right now, will reopen in 2020 as a marriott autograph hotel. Thats a big part of the experience here in amarillo, is being able to see the old amid the new and how it all comes together. Ellen is a really good photographer. She has been influenced by a lot of really good photographers through the years. You know, she can really see the juxtaposition of the old and the new here, the skyscraper, the old sign and so forth, and the old street. Driving a little bit on the interstate right now but only because route 66 was obliterated here, were going to get off at exit 0 and visit one of the coolest ghost towns along all of route 66, glenn rio. The last strand in texas going west and the first strand if youre going east. With that in mind, were actually going to stop at the First Last Motel like on the state line. As the name implies, it was the first or last thing you saw, depending on which way you were goin going. Were standing at the cafe built in glenrio. You either had your first or last meal in texas. It was an exceptionally busy, successful cafe because it was locate ntd middle of nowhere. People could fill up their bellies, fill up their tanks in their cars and if they were tired, they would get a room at the motel in the back. Either way, glenrio was a happening town in the 1950s. This was definitely in the book. We had a lot of fun photographing this and i had a lot of fun writing about it as well. Glenrio was truly a busy place along route 66. Its hard to imagine that cars would truly be stacked up five and six deep at the gas pumps in the middle of nowhere like this, especially since its so quiet today. But all we have to do is look to the freeway about a quarter of a mile north. Thats where everybody is. Our cspan cities tour of amarillo continues on American History tv in nearby kenyan as we walk through the white plains exhibition. Im bill mercer, assistant director at the Historical Museum. Today what i would like to do is share with you the native american collection and the history of native americans and the culture of native americans here in this region of texas. And its very appropriate that we sort of begin with the contemporary. Noted artist alan houser, who was apache. He was born in oklahoma, a desce descendent of geronimos band after moved to amarillo after geronimo was captured. Native american on horseback, thats truly the story of native americans in the Southern Plains region and in the panhandle especially. Once horses became available to them in the 1600s, particularly the camanches and some of the apache people, they were able to obtain horses from traders in santa fe, stealing some of them as well. They were able to then utilize much more efficiently because they could cover much longer distances. The bisonhunting culture really became the strong suit, the highlight of the area. So what im going to do today is show you some of the objects associated with that kind of mobility. Objects such as clothing. And so what i would like to do is begin by starting out looking at some moccasins, because moccasins are really a diagnostic feature of plains indian people and everybody understands, youve got to wear something on your feet. And each tribe throughout the plains in historic period, and by that i mean the 1800s into the early 1900s. Every tribal group had its own distinctive style of moccasins, be it the way they were cut and shaped and then also decorated. Some folks would weave them completely on the top. Others would incorporate porcupi porcupine quill works on them. What you can see on this particular pair that could be either camache or kakaiawa, maka very pleasing sound as one would be walking. At the heel there was often times weather fringe put on there. People used to say this is to obscure the tracks as they were walking. Thats not necessarily the case. These people didnt spend much time walking. They were on horseback. And so really what it was, that fringe was decorative, to hang off of the back of the moccasin as the person was on horseback or to sort of fliter off as they were galloping on horseback. It was purely an aesthetic kind of thing. So what i would like to do is move from here and then show you some other very specific kinds of things that were characteristic of the Southern Plains folks, like the kiawa, like the cananche. The moccasins we were looking at a moment ago were all made for men. For women, it was generally boots so you have these moccasins with these leggings on them. Sometimes they were all made in one piece. In this particular instance, its two pieces. You can see that the wonderful geometric designs to the beadwork and then the reddish purple, maroon color things, those are actually beans that were used for decorative purposes as well. And these glass beads on the Southern Plains with the camance and kiawa, they really took bead work to an enormously fine art and often times showed up in the objects associated with the native american church. Here are some of these kinds of things. The little pouch there with the figure in the center of it, very tiny beads. Each one painstakingly put on. The fans that people carried into the teepees during the ceremonies and the rattles that were used to keep time with for the songs. And each one of those handles is wonderfully beaded. Although in some instances, as we see here, it was just wrapped with thread instead of beadwork there. They were using and adapting all the different types of materials that they had with them. On the plains, in this area of the plains, what we have is a great deal of veneration for children. And so not only do you see wonderful toys such as this doll in the small cradles there, you know, which were seen as toys but instructional toys, because they were teaching young girls how to care for their own young when that time came. And then, of course, this magnificent cradle that we see here. This is a fullsize cradle, fully beaded. And its very interesting to note that often times with kiawa cradles there would be a completely different design from one side of the cradle to the other and even the complete shift in color as well as designs. This was very typical of the late 1800s, early 1900s for kiawa as well as camance cradles. This one also has elaborate decoration in terms of the tacks that are added as well. Then what i would like to also do is show you probably our most significant single object in our native american collection here at the panhandle plains Historical Museum. Its a headdress that belonged to the camache chief. He was the son of a white captive who rose through camanche society to ultimately become the leading chief. He was involved with the red river war along this area against the United States government as the native people were being pushed out. He was considered to be a great leader. He was also involved with both of the battles of adobe walls in 1864 and again in 1874, and he lived well into the 20th century and ultimately became an incredible advocate for the camanche people and other tribes and he was an early leader of native american church. And this is a photograph of him ta taken around 1900 or so. You can see hes his full glory as an adult, wearing his finest clothing and the headdress behind us here is really a remarkable example of these kinds of objects that were worn by men of high rank and high status. The golden eagle feathers that are topped with horse hair on them, the red woollen cap and then the wonderful sort of metallic ricrac along the brow. For many of the people of the c camanche nation, a full trailer would signify great importance, high, high rank in status for anyone who had the opportunity to obtain one, to own one and earn the right to also wear it. This is truly one of the great pieces we have here in the collection. Were very grateful to the families of k w ona parker who come to visit and examine this piece as part of their family heritage as well. Were also reaching out and working with contemporary native people to help educate us even more about traditional native american heritage, in particular here on the panhandle, were specifically looking toward our kiawa and comanche friends for that. Our cspan cities tour continues with a look at the Santa Fe Railroad depot. Take a look at some of the unique features here at the Santa Fe Railroad depot with ties to both industry coming into amarillo and agriculture shipped out of amarillo. Were here at the depot to look at some of the unique features santa fe did when they built this facility. Right now were in the baggage room, which is original to amarillo. A lot of the original stuff is still here. Original construction. None of that has changed. We have the scales that are original. So, this would have been the passenger and Light Commercial freight area. So your passenger freight, your steam trucks, anything you were traveling with would come across here and be weighed just like what you have on the airplanes today, so to speak, was done on the trains years ago. So, that was here. And then your commercial freight would have been done on the scales up top. One of the cool things that youll notice as we go through the building is the construction in this building. This was built by railroad engineers. It was built to last. Realize that this building right now is over 100 years old. As we go through the building, keep in mind, like i said, this is historical. This say room thats unique, but is important to our history. This room would have been what was called the coloreds only room. This is where segregation actually took place in amarillo at one time. Its been converted into a room that people use for weddings and stuff like that. Its an important part of our history and we want to make sure we keep it noted. The other thing to note, and youll see up above, there was, of course, no air conditioning and heating and cooling back in the day. So, windows are still in place throughout the railroad facility, through the depot. This was basically the cooling. When you wanted cooling in the summertime, all of these windows were opened up to move air throughout the facility. When we come down through here, well step back out to where you actually boarded the planes or boarded the trains from this location. Theres been an adaptation. Originally these portal holes were your porter would stay here in this small little building right here. This is where you got your ticket punched to get on the trains. Youll notice that the train tracks are higher now. They were actually about threefoot lower back in the day when the depot was originally built. A lot of that has changed because of the weight of the trains and whats required for the trains. If this was to turn back into a passenger station, it could easily be converted with an elevated deck. If amtrak was ever to come through amarillo, this is where it would be. As we come back in, one of the cool features of our depot is we still have the original ticket counters. When you look at our ticket counters here, this would have been where you come to buy a ticket. We still have a sound system that was original to the railroad. Its still here. And some of the artifacts that were unique to amarillo, we still have conductors. We still have the telegraphs. All of that equipment, we still have here. We dont store here inside the depot. We store it in a safe place. A lot of those historical elements of our depot are still in place and still here in amarillo. I would like for you to come in behind and take a look at the ticket counters. These are original to the depot, too. One of the unique things about this, anybody thats done retail can identify with what were fixing to look at. When is the last time you saw change drawers that you actually had the wood who will ohollo we the denominations of the dollar bills . All of that is original. This is from back in the early 1900s. We still have all of these these would have been where they kept the logs. So if youre taking a train to albuquerque, new mexico, or wherever, this is where they kept the stamps and tickets to move you through the system. Once again, all original in the fact that you see it moving and operating so easily is a testament to the construction of the time and period. What we have here is critical to a lot of people that dealt with the railroad. The first mural was actually chicago. When you see the age of the vehicles, you understand when this photo was taken. Chicago was the hub. It was the starting point for a lot of the rail lines. Santa fe had a presence there. Then they came down through the high plains, across the top of texas, across new mexico. And then you see the grand canyon represented, and then they would end up in San Francisco at the napa valley. The mural is basically giving you a depiction of the way that you moved by train across the western half of the United States. When we come into this area, this was what was classified as the grand ballroom. If you think about the period, your big beef buyers from chicago would have come down here to make deals with the big ranchers in texas. This is where some of those deals would have been made. Its easy to visualize how important this was. This would have been for Big Community civic functions would have taken place here, because the depot was the biggest and most prominent structure in the city of amarillo at the time it was built. What we have here is original santa fe door. This door actually was located on the other side of the building. It was moved over here because of its importance actually to us and for this specific part of here. That is actually gold leaf original Santa Fe Railway door. The reason you see the paper behind it, were protecting all of that. In this grand ballroom you could have had the ranchers or the four sixes, ls ranch coming here to meet with brokers to sell beef to the rest of the United States out of this room. Our depot is one of the unique depots because the harvey house is part of the depot itself. Well take a trip upstairs and take a look at the historical harvey hotel. As we come up into the harvey house, understand it was a highend hotel in its day. This would have been the coat room. As you came up, you would have been received here. They would have checked your coat, put it in the coat room. Then you would have entered into the hotel itself. This was the dining area for the harvey house. So this was a fullservice restaurant. The restaurant over here, and there would have been table and chairs in here and the harvey girls would have serviced you in here. The harvey girls were actually not allowed to mingle with the guests. They had to say segregated. The harvey girls have a separate entrance into their area so they didnt have to come through the station to actually work in this area. They had their own dormitories and they were back here. This would have been the private entrance for the harvey girls to come into, both work here and live here. A lot of those girls basically signed a contract with harvey, lived on premises and stayed on premises, and some of them for many years. There was a high set of standards to be a harvey girl, and you absolutely could not frater niez with your customers. Here would have been the restroom facilities. As you came down the hallway, all the girls had to come down here to use the restroom. And well show you a quick look at one of the dormitory rooms for the girls. This room could have held between six to eight girls inside of it. Once again, take a look. We have the transit windows to move the air across through here. They had steam heat in here, but no air conditioning. So you can imagine a day. The other interesting thing is this, the reason you know this is a dormitory is because this is whats considered a large closet in the day. Yes, its a walkin, but its not much size to a walkin closet. Of course, the girls would have had a view outside of their dormitories and from the restaurant they could see the Railroad Tracks. They knew when the train was coming in and when their workload was going to increase. Now as we walk down here, we actually start looking at some of the hotel rooms. Youre going to notice that the hotel rooms, im going to ask you to envision back in the early 1900s. Not many cars around here. Still a lot of horses and wagons, and the prominence of this structure in that time period is undeniable. It truly is impressive. This would have been one of the first hotel rooms that you could get from harvey. As you can tell, its not very big, but it served its purpose. So if you were traveling Cross Country and wanted a onenight stay, you maybe did 12 hours coming from kansas city to here, here is where you would have stopped and rested before you went to the grand canyon and then on to california. Now, as i said earlier, keep in mind, there were some big deals being made in amarillo at the time. Youre talking about somebody buying beef thats going to be feeding tens of thousands of people in the east and upper midwest, so those guys that are doing that, theyre rather wealthy guys, so theyre not going to take a room like this. Theyre going to take a suite. Step into a suite. This would have been a suite. It connected these two rooms together, plus a huge walkin closet. At the time that this was built, there wasnt really much of a downtown amarillo, but you could see all of amarillo developed back to the east. You could have been in this room and seen the entirety of amarillo from these windows. We want to keep our history. Its an important part of who we are, and we envision redeveloping this spot back to its original look and feel. Of course, there can be multiple uses that dont necessarily involve it being a train. We could have dining. We could have a bed and breakfast in the harvey hotel. We envision this being a destination because not only are we tied to the trains, but were tied to route 66. And so we still get a lot of that route 66 traffic coming through amarillo and the depot is one of the key features that peop people, when they drive it, they want to see it, because it is such an important part of the history of not only amarillo, but the United States and the development of the west. Tonight on American History tv beginning at 8 00 eastern, from American History tvs lectures in history series, Wellesley College professor brenna greer discusses rosa parks and the bus boycott. American history tv on csp cspan3, exploring the people and events telling the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend saturday at noon eastern on the presidency, William Allman on the 1962 white house tour with first Lady Jacqueline kennedy and the white house collections. At 6 00 p. M. Eastern, American Civil War interpretation specialist carissa harkin. And sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on reel america, National Program in the Tennessee Valley about two massive dam projects, the norris dam in tennessee and wheeler dam in alabama. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. The cspan cities tour travels the country, exploring the american story. Since 2011, weve been to over 200 communities across the nation