Parnell

Parnell began in 1888 under another name, Oran, after Governor Oran Milo Roberts, one of the county's two namesakes. The Handbook of Texas says the Cresswell Land and Cattle Company favored its central location, close to the ranch, while Miami's citizens argued that their railroad made them the logical seat, and that the quarrel over the county records grew heated enough that Texas Rangers were called in to keep the peace. After Miami won the final election in 1898, Parnell's post office closed and its people moved to Miami, Canadian, Pampa and elsewhere; the site returned to ranch land.

What the plaque says

(One mile east) Roberts County was created on Aug. 21, 1876, by the Texas Legislature, but remained unorganized, as in that year it had only one settler. Its 1880 population was 32. After the Santa Fe Railroad was built across this area in 1887, settlement increased. A Jan. 1889 election to organize the county was invalidated by fraudulent voting. However, the disqualified officers opened a courthouse in a vacant store in Miami (20 mi. SSE), the county seat according to the contested election, and placed the records in a heavy safe. The legally elected authorities later obtained the records by hiring a gunman to impersonate a landowner and to capture the safe when it was opened. Hauled to the legal county seat near this site, the safe was set on blocks and a 2-story frame courthouse was built around it. First known as Bennett and then as Oran, the town was renamed Parnell when the U.S. Post Office opened in March 1890. Parnell had a few businesses, about 12 residences, a school, and a saloon. Guests rode 25 to 30 miles to attend dances in the courthouse. Those attending court in Parnell had to camp out, as the hotel was small. Miami became county seat in 1898, and Parnell was abandoned. (1973, 1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Roberts County Museum — 17 mi
  The county museum in Miami's old Santa Fe depot, holding mammoth bones and Clovis points from a 1934 dig, in the cow town that has held a cow-calling contest since 1949.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — 24 mi
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 24 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 25 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.

More markers nearby

• Miami Mammoth Kill Site — 11 mi
• Cottage Hotel — 17 mi
• County Named for Prominent Confederate Colonel O. M. Roberts — 17 mi
• Miami Railroad Depot — 17 mi