Amarillo is located where US 40 and US 27 intersect, north of
Lubbock, near the
Canadian River and Lake Meredith. It lies in
Potter County, just east of the New Mexico state line, in the Texas Panhandle.
The settlement saw its start in 1887 as a camp for workmen building the Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad.
Amarillo, population 174,727, lists its top three employers as the Amarillo Independent School System, IBP, Inc.; and Baptist St. Anthony's Health Care System.
Attractions include the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in Texas. Palo Duro Canyon, second-largest in the United States and noted for its colors, is 1,000 feet deep and more than a hundred miles long. The American Quarter Horse Association calls Amarillo home. The city also is home to Amarillo College and West Texas A&M University. The Amarillo Museum of Art was designed by Edward Durrell Stone, architect of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
