Archives for October 2002

Hedley is the place to be in Donley County this weekend as the 51st annual Cotton Festival gets underway.

One of the highlights of this year’s celebration will be the dedication of the $1.17 million expansion of the Hedley Public School on Saturday afternoon.

HISD Superintendent Bryan Hill reports that teachers began having classes in new classrooms last week and says workers are busily moving books and other items into the new combination library-auditorium.

“We’re about 80 percent complete as far as moving goes,” Hill said early this week. “We plan to have everything ready for this weekend.”

The school dedication will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday in the HISD Cafeteria in conjunction with the Hedley School Reunion. The new facility will be open for tours.

Reunion coordinator Mary Farris also reports that activity is coming along well.

“I think we’re going to have a large crowd,” Farris said. “There will be plenty of snacks and lots of visiting in the cafeteria.”

The all-school reunion is a relatively new addition to the festival. Farris said it was tried about ten years ago with limited success, and individual class reunions since that time had drawn smaller crowds. Last year, another Hedley all-school reunion was tried again and met with great success.

“Last year was really good, and we hope to have another good one,” she said.

The reunion is open to anyone with any connection to the Hedley School – students, former students, parents, alumni, current and former faculty and staff, current and former trustees, and members of the community.

The Cotton Festival itself is sponsored by the Hedley Lions Club and begins this Friday with the Hedley Lioness Club’s chili supper at the Lioness Hall.

Saturday’s activities begin with the Hedley First Baptist Church Youth Breakfast.  They will serve breakfast in the Lions Den from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.  The Rowe Cemetery Bake Sale and the Tractor Show begin at 10:00 a.m.  The bake sale will be held at Lions Den, and the Tractor Show will be held on Main Street. 

The Lions Club will serve barbecue beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the Lions Club.  The Lions will serve barbecue sandwiches after 3 p.m.

The Kiddie Parade will begin at 1:30 p.m., and the Community Parade will begin at 2:00 p.m. 

An Old Time Hootenanny with a horseshoe contest, washer pitching, craft show, and other games will be held on Main Street throughout the day, and KEFH 99.3 will provide street entertainment.

For more information, call Anthony Knowles at 856-5246.

More than 30 paleontologists from across the country visited fossil beds in Donley County Monday as part of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The tour was part of a three-day field trip hosted by West Texas A&M University before the society’s annual meeting in Norman, Okla., later this week.

Dr. Gerald Schultz, WTAMU professor of geology, and Dr. Jeff Indeck, curator of archeology at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, led the trip.

The group’s first stop was the MacAdams Quarry in the northeastern section of the county. The site, which was last excavated in 1959-60, was one of the richest in terms of the number and variety of fossils recovered.

Bob Emery, one of the scientists present at the 1959 dig, told the group that the MacAdams site yielded a dozen different species of three-toed horses, all of which existed at about the same time. 

“This was a very special place in the evolution of the horse,” Emery said. “It represents an explosion in development.”

Dr. Xiaoming Wang, a noted authority on prehistoric dogs, discussed the variety of carnivores present which probably used the small horses for lunch. There were small- and medium-sized dogs found at the MacAdams site, but there were also some huge beasts – bone-crushing dogs – present at the same time.

“These were some of the largest dogs ever to have evolved,” Wang said. “Some had long legs and were the size of bears.”

The group also toured fossil sites on Turkey Creek and on the old RO Ranch during their visit Monday. They also visited locations in Palo Duro Canyon and Lipscomb County this week.

Donley County and Clarendon in particular are famous in the world of paleontology for the fossils that were recovered from this area. In the 1940s, a geologic period of time – the Clarendonian Land Mammal Age – was named in honor of Clarendon, Texas, because the largest amount of fossils typical for that period came from Donley County.

The paleontologists visiting this week represented such respected institutions as the University of Florida, the University of California-Berkley, and the Smithsonian Institution; and each of them were well acquainted with the Clarendonian Age.

The Clarendonian Age was between nine to 12 million years ago during the Tertiary Period of the Cenozoic Era, Schultz said. It was followed by the Hemphillian Age (named for fossils found near Miami, Texas) and the Blancan Age (named for Blanco Canyon near Floydada).

Schultz said the Clarendonian is known for such prehistoric mammals as three-toed horses, giraffe-necked camels, and short-legged rhinos. Mastodons and saber-tooth cats have also been found in Donley County.

For more information about the field trip, contact Schultz at 806/651-2580, 806/467-0498  or gschultz@mail.wtamu.edu.

COLUMBUS, OH – American Electric Power began steps last week to move seven Texas power plants to inactive, or mothballed, status as the company continues negotiations with the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on the status of eight other power plants.

AEP announced on Sept. 11 that it would mothball the 16 gas-fired power plants if they were not needed by ERCOT for “reliability must run” or “RMR” purposes. An RMR plant is one required to run to ensure reliability of the electricity grid, even if electricity from that plant is not required to meet market needs.

“We are still in negotiations with ERCOT, but it was evident that seven of the plants would not be needed for reliability purposes,” said Eric van der Walde, executive vice president – wholesale for AEP.

Plants in the following cities will be moved to inactive status beginning immediately: Abilene, Point Comfort, Quanah, Corpus Christi, Bronte, and Stamford.  There are two plants in Corpus Christi that will become inactive.

The mothballing process will take up to two months to complete, depending upon the specific plant.

AEP and ERCOT continue negotiations on an interim agreement that will compensate the company for maintaining plants in operating condition and running the plants when needed by ERCOT for RMR purposes. The interim agreement will allow time for completion of a study of ERCOT’s longer-term reliability needs and the negotiation of longer-term RMR agreements, if necessary.

“An interim agreement will protect ERCOT’s reliability interests while addressing AEP’s desire to take immediate action to improve financial performance,” van der Walde said. “Our decision on these 16 plants has the potential to improve AEP’s 2003 financial performance by $30 million to $40 million.”

The decision to deactivate the plants is a result of the introduction of electricity deregulation and competition in Texas. Many new, highly efficient power plants have been built in Texas as a response to deregulation. These new plants have lowered wholesale power prices to a point below the costs of generating electricity from the 16 older AEP plants.

Approximately 150 employees work at the seven plants being mothballed. AEP has offered a severance package to these employees and has a voluntary severance offer to employees who work at other plants owned by Central Power & Light and West Texas Utilities. Eligible employees whose employment is terminated through either the voluntary or involuntary severance program, and who are unable to find employment elsewhere within AEP, will be provided with outplacement assistance, severance compensation, and benefits.

Plants in the following cities are still being discussed in negotiations with ERCOT: Corpus Christi, Abilene, Mission, San Benito, Laredo, Girvin, San Angelo, and Victoria.

Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District (PGCD) concluded the 2002 Rainfall Enhancement Program for the counties served by the District on September 30, as scheduled.

Thirty-five missions were flown during the 5-month program.  Dr. Arquimedes Ruiz of Active Scientific Management and Dr. William Woodley of Woodley Weather Consultants will assess the effectiveness of the District’s enhancement program.  Both consultants are under independent contracts with the Texas Department of Agriculture.  The assessment will include both benefits and risks of the program, and the results will be reported to the District’s Board of Directors later this year.

When the assessment is completed, a series of public meetings will be held throughout the District to report the results.  There will be at least one public meeting per county.  The time and place for these meetings will be published in the District’s newsletter, on the District website, and in each county’s local newspapers.  These meetings will provide citizens of the District the opportunity to give input to the Board concerning the rainfall enhancement program. 

The counties in the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District are Armstrong, Carson, Donley, Gray, Potter, Roberts, and Wheeler.

The directors and staff encourage those interested in learning more about rainfall enhancement to attend one or more of these meetings.

The Weems Cattle Co. Wagon of Amarillo took home top honors during the eighth annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff last Saturday.

Donley County’s JA Ranch also did very well this year, taking home first place wins for the Best Meat, the Best Potatoes, and Overall Cooking. The JA received a fourth place win in the Dessert category also.

The cookoff, which benefits the Saints’ Roost Museum, was called the best ever by museum board members. Tickets for the authentic Chuckwagon supper sold out by early Saturday morning. Extra tickets were printed and divided amongst the wagons along with additional food to meet the high demand. Officials estimate more than 1,000 people attended the daylong event.

“I thought it was wonderful,” said Tommye Duncan, one of the organizers of the event. “We appreciated everyone who came and everyone who worked so hard to make it a success.”

Breakfast and lunch concessions were provided by the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce. A trade show was held throughout the day, and live entertainment was provided by local and area talent. Relatives of legendary cattleman and Chuckwagon inventor Charles Goodnight also were on hand for their annual family reunion.

The Clarendon College Theatre Department presented a melodrama, “The Rat Catcher’s Daughter or Death Valley Daze,” following the evening meal and awards presentations.

Museum board member Willard Skelton was recognized with a plaque for his years of dedicated service to the museum.

A cowboy church service closed the cookoff on Sunday morning.

Thirteen wagons competed in this year’s cookoff and served a menu of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, beans, and cobbler. Prizes totaling more than $3,000 were paid out to the winners.

Complete results are as follows:

Overall Wagon & Cooking: 1) Weems Cattle Co. of Amarillo, 2) Darcy Wagon of McLean, 3) Adamah / J Bar D of Amarillo, and 4) Flint Creek of Graham.

Overall Cooking: 1) JA Ranch of Clarendon, 2) Weems Cattle, 3) Break-Away Wagon of Stamford, and 4) Darcy.

Best Wagon Camp: 1) Flint Creek, 2) Darcy, 3) Adamah / J Bar D, and 4) Weems.

Best Meat: 1) JA Ranch, 2) Darcy, 3) Adamah / J Bar D, and 4) Break-Away.

Best Beans: 1) McFall Wagon of Pampa, 2) Weems, 3) Flint Creek, and 4) Encino Beans & Biscuits Wagon of Ozona.

Best Dessert: 1) Ericksdahl Cattle Co. of Stamford, 2) Uh Oh Ranch of Canyon, 3) Weems, and 4) JA Ranch.

Best Bread: 1) Break-Away, 2) 7W Ranch of Bowie, 3) Adamah / J Bar D, and 4) Quarter Circle KC of Lockney.

Best Potatoes: 1) JA Ranch, 2) Weems, 3) Ericksdahl, and 4) Encino.

Food judges this year were Virginia Patton, Carolyn Blackerby, Hillary McAnear, Freddie Jo Moreman, Carla Devin, Tex Selvidge, Chad Selvidge, Edwin Campbell, Jack Hall, and Mark C. White, all of Clarendon. Wagon judges were Shirley Creacy of Fritch, Billy D. Bowman of Estelline, and Bailey Reece of Canyon.

Other winners during Saturday’s activities were Nova Mooring of Clarendon, who won a pair of James Owens handmade boots; Wes Smith of Clarendon, who won a barbed wire wreath from Cornell’s Country Store; and Josh Burkhart from Oklahoma, who won a gift certificate from Saye’s.

Recent visitors to Community Bank and the Col. Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff have gotten the first public views of an original painting of the Donley County Courthouse, which is being raffled off to support the restoration of the 1890 building.

The work, sponsored by the Community Bank and the Donley County Historical Commission, was painted with acrylics on canvas by local Methodist pastor James Ivey Edwards.

“We got such wonderful comments about the painting when we had it at the museum this past weekend,” said commission chairman Jean Stavenhagen. “Everyone loved it and commented on how talented James is.”

Edwards, who had been painting since 1966, said the project was challenging.

“I worked on the painting over 250 hours,” Edwards said. “It was hard to do because every cupola is different. It seemed like the builders were trying out different styles to see what they could do.”

The painting is set in 1911 and shows the Methodist Church in the background. Edwards looked at several black and white photographs as well as color postcards as guides for the piece. The church is historically correct in its location and appearance, but Edwards took artistic license with the placement of houses and a horse-drawn delivery wagon.

The courthouse is a departure from the artist’s usual subjects. Edwards’ paintings have usually been watercolor and acrylic of wildlife and landscapes taken from the Panhandle area. His pieces have hung everywhere from local homes to the home of former president Ronald Reagan.

While Edwards was doing graduate work at the University of Texas in Austin, he had a showing at a local gallery where his work caught the eye of a prominent member of the Republican Party. The party bought one of his paintings called “Hunter Home” and presented it to Ronald Reagan, who was then Governor of California.

That painting was of an Indian bringing home an antelope from Plum Flat in Palo Duro Canyon and was highly publicized, which gave Edwards a lot of recognition as a painter. Reagan’s love for Indian and Western Art and especially West Texas scenes brought about the sale of three more paintings to him in the years that followed.

In 1979, Edwards moved his family to Clarendon, where he took a job teaching art at Clarendon College. He held that position for more than 10 years before going into the ministry and hasn’t done much painting since then. But with the courthouse piece, his interest has been rekindled. He says he wants to paint another scene of the courthouse and then do religious paintings.

The courthouse painting will remain on display for two more weeks at Community Bank. It then will be displayed at Herring National Bank and later at the Donley County State Bank. Chances are being given for a $1 donation, which can be made at the bank or by calling any of the following historical commission members: Millie Dishong at 664-8832, Ruth Robinson at 874-2057, or Jack Moreman at 874-2071.

The painting will be given away at the re-dedication of the courthouse, which should be in December.