The Canadian River below Canadian runs through two kinds of country, and this wildlife management area takes in both. About two-thirds of its 5,394 acres is sand sagebrush and midgrass rangeland on the sand hills: sand plum, fragrant sumac, little bluestem, sand bluestem and blue grama. The other third is river bottom, with eastern cottonwood, hackberry, black locust, elm and dogwood over big bluestem, switchgrass and Indiangrass.
Texas Parks and Wildlife bought the first parcels in 1950 and 1951 with Pittman-Robertson money, the federal excise tax on guns and ammunition that pays for state wildlife work, for wildlife management, public use and research. It still serves as an outdoor laboratory, and students, teachers and scientists leave markings, flags and traps that visitors are asked not to disturb. The area is named for Gene Howe, the Amarillo newspaperman and conservationist.
The list of residents is long for the Panhandle: bobwhite quail, Rio Grande turkey, white-tailed and mule deer, black-tailed prairie dogs, burrowing owls, Mississippi kites, Texas horned lizards and both prairie rattlesnakes and western massasaugas, with bass, crappie, catfish and gar in its waters. A Limited Use Permit opens it for hiking, fishing, camping and wildlife watching, and an Annual Public Hunting Permit adds dove, waterfowl and quail; deer, turkey and hog hunts are by drawing only. Everyone signs in at the headquarters check station first. Lake Marvin is a few miles east.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour