Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument

In 1968 Amarillo marked one hundred years since helium was found in the sun's atmosphere, and it did so as the Helium Capital of the World. Since 1918 the gas had come out of Panhandle natural gas wells. In 1927 the federal Bureau of Mines began negotiating for the Cliffside gas field, some 50,000 acres in Potter County, and in April 1929 its extraction plant near Amarillo started production. For years that plant was the only producer of commercial helium in the world, chilling natural gas to about 300 degrees below zero until everything but the helium turned liquid.

By 1964 an estimated 95 percent of the world's recoverable helium came from within 250 miles of Amarillo. Crude helium was put into underground storage in the Cliffside field. The Amarillo plant shut down in 1970.

The centennial monument is four time columns, filled in 1968 with books, documents and artifacts about life that year. The caps were welded on and the contents sealed in helium. The columns were set to be opened after 25, 50, 100 and 1,000 years. The monument stands outside the Don Harrington Discovery Center, the city's science museum, which sells its own tickets.