The Clarendon News

The paper's printer and later editor was Ed Carhart, the son of Lewis Carhart's cousin John Wesley Carhart of Wisconsin. Its first edition, dated August 2, 1879, declared Clarendon "a sobriety settlement," a fair label for a colony that at one time had seven Methodist ministers and no bars. Supplies then came down the cattle trails from Dodge City, and stagecoaches linked the town to Mobeetie and Tascosa. Clarendon was later home to the Clarendon Press, longtime publisher of western Americana.

What the plaque says

The Clarendon News The Clarendon News The town of Clarendon began with an effort led by the Rev. Lewis H. Carhart as he strived to create a colony based on Christianity, temperance and education. To promote the settlement, he created The Clarendon News, publishing the first issue in June 1878, the same year the first colonists arrived. The News was the first newspaper in the Panhandle. Since its first printing, it has changed owners and names many times but has always provided local news coverage and community interest pieces. As the community grew, printing methods changed from hand-set type to 21st-century computer innovations. The newspaper's long, continuous run is a tribute to Carhart and the many pioneer journalists who followed him. (2003)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Donley County Courthouse — steps away
  Bulger and Rapp's red brick and white stone courthouse of 1891, the oldest in use in the Panhandle, given back its third floor and towers in a 2003 restoration.
• Saints' Roost Museum — 0.9 mi
  Clarendon's county museum in the hospital Cornelia Adair built for JA cowboys in 1910, named for the nickname cowhands gave a Methodist town with no saloons.
• Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The two-story house the Goodnights moved into on December 27, 1887, after leaving the JA, with a porch that looks over bison descended from the calves Mary Ann saved.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• Stockton P. Donley — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Clarendon — 0.3 mi
• St. Stephen's Baptist Church — 0.3 mi
• Funeral Business in Clarendon — 0.3 mi