Staging a Texas Legacy

A lone cowboy on horseback, holding a fluttering Texas flag, stands at the edge of a high ridge in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Suddenly, fireworks explode in the evening sky, signaling the start of a historical summer pageant that has celebrated the Texas Panhandle's ranching heritage for 40 years. As sparks fade, the audience in Pioneer Amphitheatre cheers wildly while the rider races along the ridge's edge and vanishes into the darkness.

"I remember seeing that cliff rider as a child, and I always wanted to be one," says Shannon Timberlake, 47, of nearby Canyon, Texas (pop. 12,857). "Now I am, and I can't explain the feeling I get when I hear people whooping as I ride away. It's awesome."

Canyon's relationship with cowboys, cattle and the 120-mile-long Palo Duro Canyon—known as the Grand Canyon of Texas—is legendary and undisputable.

In 1887, cattle rancher Lincoln Guy Conner founded the town, which residents named after Palo Duro Canyon. When the railroad arrived a decade later, Canyon City—renamed Canyon in 1911—became a major shipping center for cattle and cotton.

Ranching and farming remain important industries, but Canyon is just as well known for West Texas A&M University, the Texas Panhandle-Plains Museum, and Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which hosts 60 performances of Texas from June to August on an outdoor stage amid the canyon's 600-foot sandstone cliffs.

"So many small towns are dying, but not Canyon," says Sarah Grabber, 70, a Canyon resident and pageant volunteer who greets visitors as they enter the 1,724-seat amphitheatre. "It's a bustling little place."

It wasn't always the case. In the late 1950s, Canyon's economic future appeared bleak. In 1960, though, a few residents saw promise in the past and asked playwright Paul Green to pen a historical drama about the Texas Panhandle and its colorful and rugged pioneers.

In July 1966, Texas opened at Pioneer Amphitheatre. Over the next 37 seasons, the two-hour pageant drew an audience of more than 3 million who watched cast members sing and dance their way through the struggles and triumphs of homesteaders and ranchers who settled the region in the 1880s.

"In the beginning, we competed against Gunsmoke and TV dinners," says Gene Morrison, 52, a Canyon native who performed in the drama as a teen and later served as treasurer of the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation, which funded construction of the outdoor theater. "Today, it's Blockbuster (videos) and theaters showing 16 movies a night, so we had to look for other opportunities."

In 2002, declining ticket sales prompted organizers to produce a new show, Texas Legacies, to renew interest in the annual pageant. This year a cast and crew of 120 will return to the original script.

"It became very obvious that our customers were clamoring for the return of Texas. This timeless story about the determination of the people who settled in the Texas Panhandle still delivers a lot of entertainment punch. Now, we get to introduce a new generation to this saga," says Joe Groves, the pageant's executive director.

The show's enduring legacy and widespread appeal are obvious to Benjamin Grabber, 24, a Canyon resident who portrayed a Texas Ranger and a military officer in last year's production.

"The play's big enough to be known around the world," says Grabber, who works in the theater's box office during the day. "But people in Canyon still feel like it's their hometown show."

Visit www.heritageent.com or call (806) 655-2181 to learn more.

Sheryl Smith-Rodgers is a freelance writer in Blanco, Texas.

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