Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day Celebration

The celebration has a stone to go with it. A fragment said to come from the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in County Cork was dedicated in Shamrock on St. Patrick's Day 1959, with the Texas secretary of state attending. As the story goes, a piece broke off in an accident, town officials asked for it promising to promote tourism to Ireland, and armored vehicles guarded it on the way. Atlas Obscura notes that the tale is hard to verify. The stone sits in a green concrete pillar, and the festival crowns a Miss Irish Rose.

What the plaque says

Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day Celebration Early area settler George Nickel and his wife, Dora (Haggard), raised their family in a dugout home in Wheeler County. For his Irish heritage and for its symbolism of luck and courage, George suggested "Shamrock" for a post office approved for their home in 1890. The name was retained when the town of Shamrock was platted along the Rock Island Railroad built through the county in 1902. Shamrock bandmaster Glenn A. Truax envisioned the town capitalizing on its Irish name by producing a one-day celebration to draw thousands of visitors to the "Irish city." With the help of the Shamrock Boosters Club, the first St. Patrick's Day festival was celebrated in 1938, linking the local celebration with the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland. The first observance featured such free attractions as a parade, street dance, matinees at the Liberty and Texas theaters, a massed band concert of five hundred pieces from twelve cities, and historical and dramatic presentations, attracting about 12,000 people to a town of less than 4,000. The following year attendance topped 30,000, with parade spectators positioned along streets and the roofs of downtown buildings. The annual event continued until it was suspended during World War II and again during the Korean War. The Chamber of Commerce took over sponsorship in 1952. Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day celebration has welcomed many state and national figures in politics, sports, music and entertainment. It has evolved to a multiple-day affair, retaining many original activities and adding several others that have become annual tradition and an important part of the economy. In 2013, the Texas Legislature adopted House Concurrent Resolution 83, proclaiming Shamrock's celebration the official St. Patrick's Day celebration for the state of Texas. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tower Station and U-Drop Inn — 0.8 mi
  Shamrock's 1936 Conoco station and cafe at the corner of Route 66 and US-83, sketched in the dirt with a nail, named by a schoolboy and saved by the town.
• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 20 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 20 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.
• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 23 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Shamrock — steps away
• Shamrock Methodist Church — 0.2 mi
• Episcopal Church of St. Michael and All Angels — 0.3 mi
• Lela School — 5.5 mi