Historical Marker
Mathew "Bones" Hooks
Amarillo, Potter County · Texas
Erected 2022
The Handbook of Texas tells of a horse no one could ride that Hooks broke at forty-three during a train's short service stop. His white flowers went to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, to each of the forty-eight nations at the 1945 United Nations conference in San Francisco, and to units of WAACs and WAVEs in Texas. He belonged to the Old Settlers associations of Amarillo and Pampa and to cowpunchers' associations as far as Montana, and was a charter member of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. He died in Amarillo on February 2, 1951.
What the plaque says
Mathew "Bones" Hooks Born in Robertson County to formerly enslaved persons Alex and Annie Hooks, Mathew "Bones" Hooks (1867-1951) was a famed Black cowboy, Texas panhandle pioneer and Amarillo community leader. He began ranch work at age seven and developed a reputation for unusual skill taming wild horses. One day, a cowboy asked Hooks to hand him some dice, referring to the dice as "bones." Hooks misunderstood the cowboy's request and said, "my name ain't bones." The name stuck. In 1886, Hooks moved to Clarendon in Donley County. After noticing Clarendon did not have a church for African American residents, Hooks helped lead the charge to establish St. Stephen's Baptist Church. In 1894, Hooks began a tradition of presenting white flowers at funerals after a tragic trail accident involving a friend. The tradition expanded to giving white flowers to living people honoring achievements or good deeds. It is estimated he gave 500 white flowers in his lifetime. In 1900, he moved with his wife, Anna, to Amarillo. In addition to his day on the Santa Fe Railroad, Hooks helped establish the North Heights area for the city's Black residents. In 1930, Hooks led the effort to build a park for North Heights residents. This park became the only park to which Black Amarilloans had unlimited access. Officially it was named North Heights park, but informally, it was known as Bones Hooks Park. The name was officially changed in 1982. Hooks also worked to establish a Black high school and build Pioneer Hall, the central gathering space for North Heights residents. In 1934, he organized a Boys' Social Club to provide recreational access for Black youth. In his last years, he fought for equal medical access for Black Amarilloans. Despite racial bigotry and injustice, Mathew "Bones" Hooks dedicated his life to building his community. In 2021, he was posthumously inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. (2022)
Where it stands
35.23481, -101.84704 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Route 66 Sixth Street Historic District — 2.0 miThirteen blocks of Amarillo's streetcar suburb that Route 66 turned into a roadside strip, from the 1922 Nat to Texaco, Phillips and Dutch Mill stations, now shops and bars.
- Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument — 4.5 miFour sealed time capsules raised in Amarillo in 1968 for helium's centennial, in the city that for years produced almost all the world's commercial helium from the Cliffside field.
- Cadillac Ranch — 8.6 miTen Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 planted nose down in a pasture west of Amarillo by the Ant Farm collective in 1974, on private land where visitors are let in to paint them.
- Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 18 miThe Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.