Located on the campus of West Texas A&M University in the town of Canyon, about 25km south of Amarillo, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is the largest history museum in Texas and one of the best regional museums in the American Southwest. The collection covers the full sweep of Panhandle and Southern Plains history, from the Palaeolithic hunters who pursued mammoths across the high plains to the Comanche who dominated the region for 150 years, through the buffalo hunters who cleared them out, and into the ranching and farming era that followed.
The natural history galleries are strong, with impressive fossil displays from the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The art collection includes a notable group of paintings depicting the landscape and life of the Plains frontier. The Pioneer Town section recreates a late 19th-century Panhandle community with full-scale storefronts and interiors.
The museum is free for children and modestly priced for adults. The gift shop has the best selection of regional history titles in the area. Open Tuesday through Sunday; closed Mondays.