Canyon, Texas
Encyclopedia
Canyon is a city in Randall County, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University
West Texas A&M University
West Texas A&M University , part of the Texas A&M University System, is a public university located in Canyon, Texas, a small city south of Amarillo. West Texas A&M opened on September 20, 1910...

 and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is a history museum on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, U.S.A., a small city south of Amarillo. The museum's contents are owned and controlled by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, while West Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M...

. Palo Duro Canyon
Palo Duro Canyon
Palo Duro Canyon is a canyon system of the Caprock Escarpment located in the Texas Panhandle near the city of Amarillo, Texas, United States. As the second largest canyon in the United States, it is roughly long and has an average width of , but reaches a width of at places. Its depth is around...

 State Park
State park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...

 is some twelve miles east of Canyon. To the east of Canyon is the JA Ranch
JA Ranch
The JA Ranch, jointly founded by John George Adair and Charles Goodnight, is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon section of the Texas Panhandle southeast of Amarillo. At its peak size in 1883, the JA, still run by descendants of the Adair family, encompassed some of...

 founded in 1877 by Charles Goodnight
Charles Goodnight
Charles Goodnight, also known as Charlie Goodnight , was a cattle rancher in the American West, perhaps the best known rancher in Texas. He is sometimes known as the "father of the Texas Panhandle." Essayist and historian J...

 and John George Adair
John George Adair
John George Adair , sometimes known as Jack Adair, was a Scotch-Irish American businessman and landowner who provided the seed capital for the large JA Ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas Panhandle, a region of Texas...

 and still under the ownership of the Adair heirs. The population in July 2009 was estimated at 14,529.

Canyon is part of the Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

 Metropolitan Statistical Area
Amarillo metropolitan area
The Amarillo Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area in the Texas Panhandle that covers four counties - Armstrong, Carson, Potter, and Randall...

, and residents are known as Canyonites.

The town's public education is served by the Canyon Independent School District
Canyon Independent School District
Canyon Independent School District is a school district based in Canyon, Texas, U.S.A.. Founded in 1895, it covers and also serves the portion of nearby Amarillo located in Randall County...

.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, Canyon has a total area of 4.9 square miles (12.7 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

At the 2000 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, there were 12,875 people, 4,802 households and 2,924 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 2,600.0 per square mile (1,004.3/km2). There were 5,091 housing units at an average density of 1,028.1 per square mile (397.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 88.33% White, 1.92% African American, 0.54% Native American, 2.05% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 5.69% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 1.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.73% of the population.

There were 4,802 households of which 33.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.8% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.1% were non-families. 29.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.05.

23.8% of the population were under the age of 18, 25.6% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 15.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 93.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.5 males.

The median household income
Median household income
The median household income is commonly used to generate data about geographic areas and divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more...

 was $32,361 and the median family income was $46,250. Males had a median income of $34,338 versus $25,255 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $16,292. About 8.1% of families and 14.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.2% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.

Notable residents

  • Will Bigham, winner of Fox's
    Fox Broadcasting Company
    Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

     reality series On the Lot
    On the Lot
    On the Lot is a short-lived reality show competition produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett. The show, which aired on Fox, featured filmmakers competing in weekly elimination competitions, with the ultimate prize of a million dollar development deal at DreamWorks...

  • Harold Dow Bugbee
    Harold Dow Bugbee
    Harold Dow Bugbee was an American Western artist, illustrator, painter, and curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. Bugbee sought with considerable success to become the dominant artist of the Texas South Plains, as his role model, Charles M...

    , Western
    Western (genre)
    The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

     artist
    Artist
    An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

    , former curator of Panhandle-Plains Museum
  • Terry Funk
    Terry Funk
    Terrence "Terry" Funk is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley...

    , professional wrestler/actor
  • Blair Garner
    Blair Garner
    Blair Garner is an American radio personality. According to his After MidNite with Blair Garner show website, he purchased his first car at age 12. He is the host of the syndicated radio programs After MidNite with Blair Garner and The Blair Garner Show...

    , syndicated radio
    Radio
    Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

     host
  • J. Evetts Haley
    J. Evetts Haley
    James Evetts Haley, Sr., usually known as J. Evetts Haley , was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the American West, including an enduring biography of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight...

    , historian
    Historian
    A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

     of the American West, lived in Canyon and later Midland
    Midland, Texas
    Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...

  • Grady Hazlewood
    Grady Hazlewood
    Grady Hazlewood was a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from 1941 to 1971, having represented the Amarillo-based District 31 in the Panhandle...

    , Texas state senator from 1941–1971 and the father of the farm-to-market road system, was reared on a farm near Canyon.
  • Georgia O'Keeffe
    Georgia O'Keeffe
    Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...

    , artist, lived first in Amarillo (1912–1914) and then Canyon (1916–1918), having been inspired by the natural beauty of the Palo Duro country.
  • Carmen Espinoza-Rodriquez
    Carmen Espinoza-Rodriquez
    Carmen Espinoza-Rodriquez is an American singer-songwriter. She is one of ten children of Camilo Espinoza, Jr., and Maria Guadalupe Orozco Espinoza. Carmen attended Texas Tech in Lubbock and West Texas A&M University in Canyon...

    , singer/songwriter.
  • Jean A. Stuntz
    Jean A. Stuntz
    Jean Allison Stuntz is a professor at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, where she specializes in women's studies and the history of Texas, the Spanish Borderlands, and the American West. She holds the rank of associate professor...

    , historian
  • Roy Whittenburg
    Roy Whittenburg
    Roy Robert Whittenburg, Sr. , was a landowner, oilman, rancher, banker, and newspaper publisher from Amarillo, Texas, who was the Republican nominee in 1958 for the U.S. Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Ralph W...

    , businessman, newspaper publisher, and U.S. Senate candidate in 1958; died in Canyon in 1980

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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