Guymon
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Guymon

Guymon

Oklahoma Panhandle town serving High Plains ranch country, known for cattle feedlots and Pioneer Days Rodeo

Guymon is the largest town in the Oklahoma Panhandle, with about 12,000 people, and serves as the commercial center for a vast stretch of flat, wind-scoured High Plains. Texas County, despite its name, is firmly in Oklahoma, and Guymon sits roughly in its middle, surrounded by cattle feedlots and irrigated farmland.

The town's marquee event is the Pioneer Days Rodeo, held each May and ranked among the top professional rodeos in the country. The three-day celebration includes a parade, a carnival, and serious competition that draws cowboys from across the region. Outside of rodeo season, Guymon is a working town with a surprisingly diverse population -- meatpacking jobs have drawn immigrants from Central America and Southeast Asia, giving the town a variety of restaurants you would not expect in the Panhandle.

The No Man's Land Museum on the campus of Oklahoma Panhandle State University in nearby Goodwell covers the region's history, from the dinosaur era through the Dust Bowl. The Panhandle landscape itself is an acquired taste -- relentlessly flat, enormous skies, spectacular sunsets -- but if you appreciate wide-open spaces, this is about as open as it gets in the lower 48.

Guide

Eating Out

Guymon eats better than you would expect for its size. The meatpacking plant on the south side of town has, since the 1990s, drawn waves of immigrants from Mexico, Central America, Vietnam, Burma, and East Africa — and the food has come with them. The taco shops along Highway 64 are the equal of anything in a Texas border town; pho is on the menu at several places; there is a Burmese kitchen that has no business being in the Oklahoma Panhandle but is.

For the more traditional Panhandle plate — chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, a roll, iced tea by the gallon — try the Yia Yia's-style diners around downtown or the steakhouses on the way out of town. Portions are generous and prices are modest by national standards. Breakfast at any of them is the better meal.

Guide

Things to Do

Guymon is a working town, not a tourist town. The highlights are the Pioneer Days Rodeo each May, the No Man's Land Historical Museum in nearby Goodwell, and the strange thrill of driving the long, perfectly straight stretches of U.S. Route 412 across the panhandle. The town itself rewards a slow walk down Main Street and a courthouse-square coffee more than it does a busy itinerary.

Guide

When to Go

May is the obvious window — Pioneer Days Rodeo runs in the first week, the wildflowers are out on the prairie, and the weather is at its best. Summers are hot (regular 100°F days in July) but the heat is dry and the long evenings are usually pleasant. Spring storms can be violent; this is in the heart of Tornado Alley.

Winters are cold and windy with intermittent snow, and the panhandle's lack of trees means the wind hits hard. November and December are the quietest months for visitors. Avoid the worst of the late-summer heat in late July and August unless you have business that requires it.