Pioneer Town News

The U.S. census of 1880 recorded the population of the Texas Panhandle as 1,607. By 1910 it had mushroomed to over 90,000. That period of growth and expansion in what was known at the time as part of the "great American desert" is what is being portrayed in the Pioneer Town exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

Renovations to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum's Pioneer Town started last year when it was announced it would be closed for a while to tear things down and build from the ground up.

While visiting Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum on Thursday morning for a story on the renovations at Pioneer Town , I got a quick, personal tour of the current art show in the Foran Gallery upstairs.

The oats were cut and shocked last week . The steam and gas tractors and engines are being greased and polished.