TEXAS PANHANDLE

Traces of Texas’ Throwback Thursday: Cowboys on Turkey Track RanchThe iconic Turkey Track Ranch located just north of Amarillo recently went up for sale. The ranch was established in 1878 when Richard E. McNalty arrived in the Texas Panhandle from Colorado with a herd of cattle bearing a brand he called Turkey Track. The land was also the site of the First Battle of Adobe Walls in 1864 and the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. For the low, low price of $200 million, you can purchase 80,000 acres of pure Texas to gallivant around on. This photo, taken on the Turkey Track Ranch by noted cowboy photographer Erwin E. Smith in 1906, shows cowboys crossing the Wichita River.

In the Texas Panhandle, a huge family-owned ranch officially hits the real estate market this week. “It is simply a one of one, and possibly the last of the great ones.”

In the hinterland of the Texas Panhandle, the tiny town of Lipscomb has managed to hold on to a way of life that has largely disappeared across the country.

It was the start of a steamy Friday two Augusts ago when Jason Whisler settled in for a working breakfast at the Coffee Ranch restaurant in the Texas Panhandle city of Borger. Borger's computer system had been hacked. Across Texas, similar scenes played out in nearly two dozen communities hit by a cyberattack officials ultimately tied to a Russia-based criminal syndicate.

In the third part of our spring day drives series, we’re heading to the Texas High Plains and places like Lubbock, Amarillo, and Earth.

AMARILLO, Texas – Several suspected tornadoes touched down Saturday afternoon in the Texas Panhandle between Lubbock and Amarillo, according to the National Weather Service, but no injuries or fatalities were reported. “There are no reports of injuries,” and only minor damage, Merchant said. “We can't answer that until afterwards when we examine the damage,” Merchant said. Storm survey teams could be sent to the areas as early as Sunday morning, according to Merchant. ___This story has been corrected to show the name of the Amarillo area emergency management director is Chip Orton, not Chad Orton.

Not for anything could Raymond Reeves bluff his way through a game of poker. When Reeves died he still had 120 cows and calves, down from 300 at the height of his work. Raymond Reeves did not suffer a mean animal. “It was very difficult for him to grasp that this was serious,” Carol Reeves said. That day in November, after Reeves died, there was no tearing of wrapping paper or laughter of children.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Snow, sleet and freezing rain were reported Tuesday in parts of the Texas Panhandle as an early season ice storm bore down on the Southern Plains. The National Weather Service issued an ice storm warning for areas in the Big Country, Concho Valley, the Northern Edwards Plateau and portions of the Heartland. Freezing rain is expected in parts of West Central Texas. Snow was also reported near Amarillo and San Angelo, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shared images of a snowy Chaprock Canyons State Park near Quitaque. NWS-El Paso also reported snowy conditions in the Borderland, where temperatures were in the upper 20- and low 30-degree range.

AUSTIN, Texas Signs in the Texas Panhandle urged voters to wear masks. By and large, most voters covered their faces, even though Texas' mask mandate exempts polling locations. On Wednesday, Texas again set a new high with nearly 10,800 new cases, along with a record 110 deaths. The rising toll includes 35 deaths that officials on the Texas-Mexico border said happened Wednesday morning alone in Hidalgo County. Although it remains too early to tell the impact since Texas' mask order was announced before the Fourth of July weekend, other former holdouts to requiring face coverings continued relenting Wednesday.

Sarah M. Vasquez for The Texas TribuneEnough people to pack the bleachers at Faith Christians football stadium in Grapevine. By the state's official count, the coronavirus pandemic has now killed 2,029 people in Texas, a toll experts agree is an undercount. Connecticut, a state with one-eighth of Texas population, is mourning twice as many known fatalities. Most Texans died where most Texans live, state data show. The state health department has collected only limited data about them, reporting demographic information for just 664 lost Texans.

The coronavirus has spread in the Texas Panhandle, where a workforce of Hispanics and immigrants power several meatpacking plants. Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneMore than 700 new coronavirus cases were reported in the Amarillo region Saturday, as results from targeted testing at meatpacking plants came in. Potter County reported 618 new cases on Saturday bringing its total to 2,080, while Randall County reported 116 new cases for a total of 593. In total, the three counties accounted for 738 of the 1,801 new cases reported on Saturday. Across the country, the coronavirus has spread easily in meatpacking plants, where workers typically stand shoulder to shoulder on fast-moving butchering lines.

AMARILLO, Texas (CNN) - Heavy snow fell in parts of the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, causing near whiteout conditions in Amarillo, according to the National Weather Service. Residents posted videos of the rare October snow storm on social media that show their fall decorations and pumpkins covered in white flakes. The preliminary snow reports show that 4 inches of snow fell five miles west of Amarillo, according to the NWS. People weren't the only ones going outside and enjoying the rare storm; a pup named Maggie ran around her backyard in Amarillo and dug her nose in the fresh snowfall. The Panhandle will continue to get snow throughout the evening, but it should wind down by midnight, according to Ward.