Amarillo. More Than You Imagined.

The icons get you here. Discovery changes what you thought you knew.

People think they already know Amarillo.

Cadillac Ranch. The 72-ounce steak. Route 66. Cowboys. Palo Duro Canyon.

They are not wrong. They are just early.

Amarillo does not need to reinvent the version travelers already recognize.

It needs to show them what comes next.

Start With What They Know

Cadillac Ranch can make someone take the exit. The Big Texan can turn a highway sign into a stop. Route 66 can pull a traveler off the interstate. Palo Duro Canyon can make Amarillo the reason for the trip.

The opportunity begins after they arrive.

Route 66 turns 100 this year, and along Amarillo’s Sixth Avenue, travelers find more than nostalgia. Historic buildings still hold restaurants, shops, galleries and businesses.

A traveler comes looking for the Mother Road and stays for lunch. Lunch becomes a shop, then a mural, then one more place somebody local says they should see.

An hour becomes an afternoon.

A stop becomes a stay.

Look Again

For a city defined so strongly by Western tradition, Amarillo has an unexpected relationship with art.

Cadillac Ranch began as ten Cadillacs buried nose-first in a pasture. Over time, visitors started painting the cars themselves. What began as an Ant Farm installation evolved into something thousands of strangers continually remake.

While directing In Open Air for Panhandle PBS, I explored Amarillo’s public art and met Ant Farm member Chip Lord during Cadillac Ranch’s 50th anniversary.

Cadillac Ranch is not an isolated oddity. Murals change forgotten walls. Quarter Horse sculptures turn Western heritage into public art. And in the same city known for cattle, cowboys and Route 66, audiences can experience a professional symphony, ballet or opera.

Western tradition and contemporary culture do not compete here.

They belong to the same landscape.

Then the Ground Falls Away

Drive south from Amarillo and the Panhandle stretches exactly as expected.

Flat land. Long horizon. Enormous sky.

Then the earth falls away.

At Palo Duro Canyon, the plains suddenly open into red rock, cliffs and distance.

A few seconds earlier, you thought you understood where you were.

Then the place changed.

That may be the best metaphor for Amarillo.

The first impression is not false.

It is incomplete.

See It Again

I came to Amarillo from Portales, New Mexico, in 2010 for a job at Bell Helicopter.

I came here to work.

Then I stayed.

Sixteen years is enough time for remarkable places to become background. Making In Open Air forced me to look closely again at a city I knew well enough to stop noticing.

The Exit Is Only the Beginning

There will always be travelers who first encounter Amarillo at 75 miles per hour.

That is not a weakness.

It is an invitation.

Give them something recognizable enough to take the exit.

Then reward the decision.

Show them the Amarillo they already know.

Then give them more than they imagined.

Amarillo. More Than You Imagined.