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Books About Gray County Texas People and Places
What's Your Favorite Book about a Gray County Texas Person, Place or Event? Here are some of our favorites about Pampa, Lefors , McLean and Alanreed.

 

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Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890

Scouting with Baldwin on the Texas Panhandle

Pampa (Texas) Daily News, September 29, 1933

"I had hunted buffalo for about two years, so I was familiar with all of that western frontier country. In the spring of 1874, we had considerable trouble with the Indians. Twenty-three of us (buffalo hunters) were corralled by Indians at Adobe Walls for about three months. I helped to build the stockade there for our protection and was in the battle . . . Read more Look inside

The Great Plains during World War IIThe Great Plains during World War II

Emphasizing the region’s social and economic history, The Great Plains during World War II is the first book to examine the effects of the war on the region and the responses of its residents.

"July 26, 1943, Jimmie Don Morris, a boy in McLean, Texas, watched with excitement and anticipation as a troop train backed onto a siding at this Panhandle station. Other town residents had gathered as well, exhibiting uncommon interest and" . . . Read more Look inside

Facts As I Remember ThemFacts As I Remember Them: The Autobiography of Rufe Lefors

Rufe LeFors was one such "ordinary" man. With his father and older brothers, he was among the first to settle this country, drawn to West Texas by tales of open land and good grass.

"Now, to tell of some other things I saw and know about I will have to go back a few years, to the first winter after settling in Gray County, Texas. It was a cold day when two young men rode up in front of the ranch house  . . . Read more Look inside

Good Kind Things For OthersGood Kind Things For Others: A True Story of Corruption in the Texas Panhandle

The events in this book are true and ongoing. The authors examination of events, facts and documents exposes some others for what they are. He hopes to focus the eye of national media through a large magnifying glass on this small community. Maybe it will help people living there and in other small communities facing similar problems to regain their true integrity and democracy." I was born in Pampa, Texas in May 1945 . When World War II ended, my father returned from the Navy and we moved 28 miles North into a small two bedroom wood frame in Borger" . . . Read more Look inside

Black SundayBlack Sunday: The Great Dust Storm of April 14, 1935

by Frank L. Stallings

One giant, black dust storm in April of 1935 became the signature event of a devastating period in the history of the South Plains of the United States. The author, who grew up in Pampa in the Texas Panhandle, gathered a collection of reminiscences, reports, and responses to the storm by individuals who had been in it, and by newspapers that had reported about it, then reflected about the storm during the following years . . . Read more Look inside

Twice Forgotten

"All I knew about Andy Anderson was that he was from Pampa, Texas. My best friend had died in a POW camp and been unceremoniously disposed of. I attempted to call the Andersons up at Pampa when I first came back, but I . . . "

Reflections of Another Day

A personal memoir of an American family, of growing up in Pampa, Texas in the 1950s, life in a bigger city, young love which generates older, more mature love, and, most assuredly, basketball - playing it, breathing it, and soaking it into our lives until it became apparent we couldn't get enough of it, but finally realizing there was more to life than that . . . Read more

Battles of the Red River War: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874

Battles of the Red River War unearths a long-buried record of the collision of two cultures.

"The one battle that was not a small skirmish, and the location of which is known, is the Battle of McClellan Creek in present Gray County. It was at this battle on November 8, 1874, that Lt. Frank Baldwin and troops of the 5th Infantry and 6th Calvary attacked a Cheyenne village on the North McClellan Creek and rescued Adelaide and Julia German . . . " Read more Look inside

Hearing Eyes

Chronicles author Linda Edwards’ personal prophetic life stories that were taken from her 25 years of journaling. These “modern day parables” will capture the attention of those who enjoy unusual stories.

"On August 16, 1950 in the small Panhandle town of Pampa, Texas my parents received a nine pound bundle, their second child of four and their second daughter. My full maiden name was Linda Kay . . ." Read more Look inside

Pampa (Images of America)

The Panhandle's first railroad, the Southern Kansas Railway of Texas, was constructed in 1886. Reaching Amarillo in 1889, the railway pulled cars filled with immigrant families and their belongings. The settlers were farmers from the east and south who came west to find water and cheap land. George Tyng, an adventurous fortune seeker, began leasing ranch land in 1887 . . . Read more Look inside

The Ballad Collectors of North America: How Gathering Folksongs Transformed Academic Thought and American Identity

"Woody Guthrie has been popularly identified with the Dust Bowl since the late 1930s, and his was an authentic experience in Pampa, Texas, that he shared in his songs and stories. He was a songcatcher as well as a songwriter, for he heard . . . Read more Look inside

Marvels of the Texas Plains: Historic Chronicles from the Courthouse to the Caprock

by Chuck Lanehart

THE ALIBATES FLINT QUARRIES: Evidence of the Earliest Humans of North America
"It was 1963, I will never forget my father taking my brother Dave and me, along with other Pampa Boy Scouts, to the Alibates flint quarries near the Canadian River, Scoutmaster Charles Lanchart was a geologist and a student of Native American culture, so he brought us to learn the importance of this historic bit of barren place, fearful that the new Lake Meredith---which would flood the area a couple of years later---might destroy evidence of the earliest people in the Americas..." . . . Read more Look inside . . . this book can also be found in Mysterious Texas

Lost Trails of the Cimarron

Lost Trails of the Cimarron is Harry Chrisman’s folk history of nineteenth-century Cimarron country - southwestern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and the neutral strip of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. Buffalo hunters entered the area in violation of the Medicine Lodge Treaty, followed by cowboys... Found inside: "But Doc Baron was a cattleman first, last, and always. he served a term as Gray County sheriff, and when he had recovered financially he again entered the cattle business. He took no active part in the Gray County political war " . . . Read more Look inside

Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas

"Henry Lester was a fiddler who had a long and productive music career in West Texas. Henry hired a four-piece band from Pampa, Texas, to be his new group after several of his players left at one time. The Pampa group had called themselves the Sons of the Saddle and included Duke Baker on fiddle, Pete Wilborn on guitar, Clyde Perkins on banjo, and Ken Bracher on bass fiddle" . . . Read more Look inside

Great Plains

With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains.

"On April 14, 1935, a black dust storm from western Kansas blew down into the Texas Panhandle. The songwriter Woody Guthrie, who was living in Pampa, Texas, took a look at the approaching storm and wrote" So Long, It's Been Good to Know You . . . " Read more Look Inside

Through Time and the Valley

The isolated Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle stretched before John Erickson and Bill Ellzey as they began a journey through time and what the locals call “the valley.” ..."Mrs. Lois Marsh of Pampa Texas, Dan Cambern's daughter, told me that another prisoner was supposed to come out shooting with Popejoy . . ." Read more Look inside

Mapping Woody Guthrie

Born in Oklahoma, he was still in his teens when he moved to Pampa, Texas to work for his father who was running a ramshackle boardinghouse, following the dissolution of the family unit in Okemah. Pampa, Guthrie recalled, was "mainly a scattering of little old shacks  . . . Read more Look inside

Route 66 in Texas (Images of America)

Route 66 stretches across 178 miles and through seven counties in the Texas Panhandle.

There is history, scenery, and adventure waiting on Route 66. " During World War II, up to 3,000 German prisoners of war at a time were housed at the McLean Permanent Internment Camp in Gray County. Most were well behaved. Two prisoners were executed for unknown offenses, and two tried to escape. They got lost and surrendered to a startled rancher" . . .  Read more Look inside

Taming the Land: The Lost Postcard Photographs of the Texas High Plains

A postcard craze gripped the nation from 1905 to 1920, as the rise of outdoor photography coincided with a wave of settlement and prosperity in Texas. Hundreds of people took up cameras, and photographers of note chose some of their best work for duplication as photo postcards—sold for a nickel and mailed for a penny to distant friends and relatives. "A mid-1890s photograph shows his photo wagon making a circuit through Gray County . . .  Read more Look inside

The Francklyn Land & Cattle Company: A Panhandle Enterprise, 1882-1957

An intensive study of a large Texas ranch, particularly of its business and financial aspects, in which the author has utilized many company records and firsthand accounts by the men who were engaged in the difficult task of establishing and maintaining a major cattle and land operation in wild, relatively isolated, semi desert country . . . Read more Look inside

Text, Image, and Christians in the Graeco-Roman World: A Festschrift in Honor of David Lee Balch

Twenty-four scholars join their efforts to congratulate David Lee Balch for a long career of dedication to scholarship and teaching. "Professor Balch was born in West Texas in 1942 and attended Pampa High School in Pampa, Texas. His educational journey is astounding and extends from Abilene Christian University in Texas, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in . . . " Read more Look inside

1st Lt. Raymond Miller Pilot: B-17G Flying Fortress WWII

Many World War II exploits took place away from the spotlight. Raymond Miller brings his gift to the story of Service and Duty.

"From Pampa, Texas, Raymond went on an overseas training unit in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he was given the choice of going into four engine training in a chosen aircraft or to take overseas training. While at Ardmore, they were never . . . .Read more Look inside

The Westward Wagon Train

by Bob A Jackson (Bob taught "at-risk" students for three years in Pampa, Texas)

It was the year of 1849, the Clark family decides to head west to California in search of claiming their good fortune. The trip goes mostly uneventfully until they get to the Colorado Rocky Mountain's Continental Divide. It is there they are approached and given the unique opportunity to live in two different future years of their lives together. After they have chosen their two years . . . Read more

Resources:

West Texas History & Memories (Face Book Group)

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

True Stories of Amazing People and Places in Texas (Facebook)

Texas History in the 19th Century (Amazon)

Vintage Texas Photos (eBay #Ad)

Life in Gray County Tx 1850-1950

Life in Gray County Texas 1850-1950

 

What's your Favorite Book about a Texas County, Town, Person or Place? Here's our best reads list County by County

 

Mysterious TexasTrue Stories of Amazing People and Places in Texas
 Loneliest, Least Populated Counties in Texas
Texas Cowboy HistoryBooks about Texas People County by County

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