Let us continue our trip northwest on US 287 through the Texas Panhandle. West of Quanah, I came across more lonely and unoccupied farm houses. Some were reasonably close to 287 and I could walk up driveways or small roads. Others were deep in farm fields and had no access any more. Where did all the families go?
Kirkland
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| Farm house, Kirkland, Texas |
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| Truck weigh station, Kirkland, Texas |
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| Unused siding, Kirkland, Texas |
Wikipedia describes Kirkland as a ghost town. I am not sure about that, but there definitely is not much happening there. The BNSF trains thunder by at high speed. The siding clearly no longer serves the unused Sunbelt CO-OP truck weighing station. The sky is bigger than ever, and the approaching storm clouds gave the scene an ominous look.
Childress
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| Nash Metropolitan east of Childress, Texas |
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| Farm house, Childress, Texas |
Childress, the county seat of Childress County, with a population of about 7,000, had a bit more going on. But I did not see much to photograph in town so I moved on.
Estelline
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| Valentine Diner, 601 Wright Street, Estelline, Texas (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, green filter) |
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| Diner interior, Estelline, Texas (Moto G5 digital file) |
Estelline had sort-of a main drag parallel to US 287. This charming little diner caught my eye. While setting up the tripod, a couple of cowboys stopped their well-used pickup truck to chat. They were amused to see a city slicker with a tripod taking pictures. They said they grew rice. I wonder where? Nice guys and very polite.
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| Farm house in cotton fields, US 287, west of Estelline, Texas (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens) |
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| Farm house and shed west of Estelline, Texas (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, green filter) |
I saw a couple of abandoned farm houses in the cotton fields. There was no way to get access by road or driveway.
Memphis
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| US 287, Memphis, Texas (80 mm Planar-CB lens, yellow filter) |
Memphis (Texas, not Tennessee) is the seat of Hall County. The town was platted in 1890 and has some brick streets and old commercial buildings. I will try to explore on my next drive through the
Texas Panhandle.
Clarendon
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| Clarendon, Texas |
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| Farm west of Clarendon, Texas |
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| Just sitting in the driveway, Clarendon, Texas (Moto G5 digital file) |
Clarendon, the county seat of Donley County, is about 60 miles east of Amarillo. The town of 2000 is rather quiet. In 2017, on the way east, we stayed in a hotel in town and discovered that other than fast food chain shops, there were no restaurants open in the evening. Another minor adventure in travel.
This ends our adventure in the Texas Panhandle. From here, it was on to New Mexico and Arizona via I-40 and Route 66. Standby for more of the great US Southwest.
The large square black and white photographs are from Kodak Tri-X film exposed with a Hassselblad 501CM camera and 50, 80, and 250mm lenses. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY processed the film in Xtol developer. I scanned the negatives with a Minolta Scan Multi film scanner.
