Channing is one of the last of my Canadian River Valley towns. This little town of 350 people has a interesting history. The site was founded by the XIT Ranch as a headquarters for the ranch.

At one time, this ranch covered 3,000,000 acres with 1500 miles of fencing! The land was given to the founders in exchange for their building the Texas State Capitol in 1885.

While large in Panhandle mythology, the history of the ranch was less illustrious: by 1905 the ranch was virtually all subdivided and sold.

This eye-catching restored Victorian building on the north part of Main Street is the old XIT office. It is now a museum but its hours of operation are not clearly posted.

The picture above was taken at pavement's end on Main, so the old office is on the gravel portion. There are no structures on the east side of Main; apparently the RR widened its right-of-way and cleared them off.

There are no businesses left on Main Street; just empty buildings. They are all on the highway (US 385) across the tracks.

The "old town" is on the west side of the tracks; the newer houses and buildings are on the east side along and near the highway. Several times a day, trains come barreling through at 50 or so MPH. I was at the courthouse and all conversations outdoors stopped due to the noise until it passed.

The little girl in the picture was the daughter of the lady doing landscaping work. The flags were at halfmast due to Lady Bird Johnson's recent death.

The XIT office is at Main and 4th Street; there isn't much north of there, so 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are storage lots, satellite dishes, and things like that.

The terrain drops into the Canadian River Valley on three sides of the town and to the north is only a narrow strip connecting Channing to the rest of the Llano Estacado. This is the only town literally on the edge of the valley; all the others are either in the valley or miles from the escarpment.