My first-ever Texas adventure, in March 2005, began with a wrong turn.
Driving from New York to Los Angeles with a friend, we departed Oklahoma City for Amarillo, Texas. Misreading the paper map, we headed 45 minutes south on I-44 instead of west on I-40 before realizing the mistake.
Chasing remote Oklahoma roads under ominous skies, we reached the Texas Panhandle at midnight. The all-consuming darkness was amplified by a storm that dropped 13 inches of snow on the region by morning. After white-knuckling into former Route 66 town Shamrock and its historic U-Drop Inn gas station, we rolled into Amarillo and checked into the Big Texan Motel.
Awaking to a blinding white landscape, we breakfasted at the adjacent Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery, home of the “Eat it all and it’s free” 72-ounce steak dinner challenge and Starlight Ranch event venue.
We bid Amarillo farewell at the Cadillac Ranch. Featuring 10 half-buried, spray-painted Cadillacs, this fabled roadside attraction from 1974 came backdropped that day by roaming cattle. More drama awaited at a ghost town on the New Mexico border, but that’s for another time.
Our diversion made poetic sense in the storybook Panhandle Plains, which spans nearly one-tenth of Texas at 26,000 square miles, with more lore in neighboring Big Bend Country to the south. For groups, heritage and cultural detours across Texas’ westernmost expanse are where lasting memories are made.
High Plains, High Times
Had we continued south on I-44, we would have hit centrally located Wichita Falls, where The Museum of North Texas History, showcasing the area’s Native American, cowboy and gas and oil industry heritage, turns 25 this year.
Brought over by Spanish conquistadors in the 1600s, cattle ranching and cowboys are quintessential Texas brands. An hour south of Wichita Falls in Graham, sprawling corporate retreat favorite Wildcatter Ranch offers flexible space and customized cowboy experiences for groups of 50-plus. Graham is also home to the Old Post Office Museum & Art Center, featuring famed Works Progress Administration (WPA) paintings that decorated U.S. post offices during the Great Depression
Heading into the Panhandle proper, Abilene was born as a railroad town in 1881. Landmarks and attractions abound in the downtown historic district, including Frontier Texas!.
Serving as Abilene’s official visitor center and gateway to the 700-mile Texas Forts Trail Region, this renowned Western heritage center features state-of-the-art holographic exhibits and multimedia movies depicting the Texas frontier from 1780 to 1880. Rentals include the 150-capacity Lobby, 75,000 square feet of outdoor space and facility buyouts for large-scale gatherings.
Abilene’s walkable parade of historic buildings includes the 1902 Hotel Grace, revived in 1992 as the event-capable Grace Museum. Focused on “American art with Texas connections,” the Museum’s 2,500-plus collection includes works by Ansel Adams, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.
Thirty minutes away in tiny Albany, the world-class Old Jail Art Center features 2,000-plus pieces of art including works by Renoir and Picasso.
Founded in 1890 by westward-bound ranchers and farmers, Lubbock is home to standout group venues including the National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University. This evocative complex of 55-plus historic structures from the 1700s onward includes the Cash Family Ranch Life Learning Center. “History is in the vanes” of the American Windmill Museum, where 160-plus vintage windmills tell the story of harnessing energy from the windswept Panhandle Plains.
Legendary Lubbock son Buddy Holly is commemorated at the Buddy Holly Center art museum and striking Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences, where versatile spaces include the 2,200-seat Main Stage and 150-capacity Main Lobby.
Returning to Amarillo, heritage venues include the Texas Air & Space Museum and American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum. Bred to compete in quarter-mile races in the 1600s, the Quarter Horse is a true American original that played a starring role in cattle herding, rodeo and Western movies. Exhibits on the history of the powerful and intelligent horse enliven events at the striking facility.
[Related: Old and New Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Venues That Set the Stage for Group Success]
Far West, Far Out
Cutting a 90-degree turn with the New Mexico border at its southwestern corner, the Panhandle transitions into spellbinding Big Bend Country.
Twenty minutes apart in Big Bend’s uppermost corner are Midland and Odessa, the main cities of the prolific oil-producing Permian Basin.
Opened in 1975, Midland’s Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, Library and Hall of Fame is America’s largest petroleum-related museum, showcasing the geological history of petroleum formation over 230 million years. Rentals range from small groups to 2,000-person gatherings. Incorporated in 1965, the event-capable Museum of the Southwest turned 60 this year.
Debuting in 1985 as the Art Institute for the Permian Basin, the Smithsonian-affiliated Ellen Noël Art Museum is an event-capable Odessa institution focused on American art from 1850 to the present. The venue is currently undergoing a major expansion project to add more space for exhibitions, classes, workshops and events.
Inaugurated in 2011 with a performance by Rod Stewart, the stunning Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center stages a range of live entertainment, from Broadway shows to headliner concerts, with flexible rentals for 1,820-plus people.
Odessa surprises include a Stonehenge replica and faithful 410-seat event-capable replica of William Shakespeare’s Elizabethan-era Globe Theatre. Other rentals include the adjacent Anne Hathaway House and Black Box venues.
[Related: 5 Texas Museums With Inspiring Event Spaces]
In the heart of Big Bend Country, tiny Marfa—renowned for its art scene, the “Marfa Lights” of possible UFOs and Hollywood movies—is home to Hotel Paisano. Billed as “the most elegant hotel between El Paso and San Antonio” when it opened in 1930, this group-capable time capsule famously housed the stars of Giant during local filming in 1955. Original accommodations include the Elizabeth Taylor, Dennis Hopper and Rock Hudson Suites, and James Dean Room.
History permeates every corner of El Paso. Situated along a stretch of the legendary El Camino Real trail, Ysleta and Socorro, originated in 1682, and Presidio Chapel of San Elizario, dating to 1789, are the three oldest active Spanish missions in the U.S.
More than 200 mostly historic buildings in downtown’s Magoffin Historic District include the group-capable Magoffin Home museum, an adobe-style landmark from 1875.
Conrad Hilton’s first high-rise hotel, an Art Deco tower from 1930, is now MICHELIN Key honoree Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, offering evocative group space. Another 1930 heirloom, the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Center, hosts diverse live entertainment and events.
Attracting visitors for 10,000-plus years, the epic boulders of Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site feature 3,000-plus ancient rock paintings. Reserve ahead for guided and permitted self-guided tours.
Adventurous groups can venture 400 miles east of El Paso (or 222 miles from Fort Worth) to San Angelo, where heritage sites include Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, a preserved frontier army post from 1867.
Two-hundred miles southeast of El Paso in Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis National Historic Site is another well-kept frontier military post from the 1800s. Nearby, the McDonald Observatory features some of the world’s largest publicly available telescopes. Like West Texas itself, viewing brilliant star clusters, celestial objects and constellations at night will stay with you forever.
