Route 66 Across the Texas Panhandle: Texola to Glenrio
About 183 miles of Route 66 from Texola on the Oklahoma line through Shamrock, McLean, Conway and Amarillo's Sixth Street, past Vega and Adrian, to Glenrio.
The Route at a Glance
Route 66 crossed the Texas Panhandle on a line the railroad had already drawn. Shamrock, McLean, Alanreed, Jericho and Groom began between 1900 and 1903 as stations and switches on what became the Rock Island, and west of Amarillo, Bushland, Wildorado, Vega and Adrian grew along track finished in 1908 and 1909. This drive follows the old road about 183 miles from Texola, where the Oklahoma drive ends, to Glenrio, where the New Mexico drive begins, three and a half hours without stops.
When the highway was numbered in 1926, not a mile of it in Texas was paved, and asphalt reached across the whole state only about a decade later. The worst of it was the Jericho Gap between Alanreed and Groom, notorious for trapping travelers in black gumbo. Jericho had a tourist court and a garage in the 1930s and lost its post office in 1955, and what is left of the dirt road there crosses private land.
The drive takes the business loops through Shamrock, past the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn, and McLean, with its Phillips 66 station and the Devil's Rope Museum. Groom's leaning water tower went up in the early 1980s. At Conway the road leaves the interstate for FM 2161, 7.2 miles paved in concrete in 1930 once a dispute over the highway's location was settled, and the most intact rural stretch of Route 66 in Texas.
Amarillo had three alignments over the years. The drive comes in on Amarillo Boulevard and goes west on Sixth Avenue to the Sixth Street district and the Nat, and Cadillac Ranch stands off the south frontage road beyond the city. From Amarillo to Glenrio the highway took over the Ozark Trail. Bushland is named for William Henry Bush, who gave land from the Frying Pan Ranch for the townsite. Vega keeps its Magnolia station, and Adrian claims the road's midpoint. I-40 went around Adrian in 1969 and Vega in 1972. The drive ends on the state line at Glenrio.
The Drive, Stop by Stop
8 stops along the route, in driving order from Texola, Oklahoma (Texas line) to Glenrio, Texas (New Mexico line).
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That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let Route 66 Across the Texas Panhandle: Texola to Glenrio do what it does best.
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