Community Profile

The City of Amarillo is comprised of two counties, Potter and Randall. Data collection regarding workforce and population encompasses the two counties, but each has a different municipality.

City of Amarillo
The City of Amarillo is located in Potter County and has a Commission-Manager form of government. The City Commission reviews policy while the City Manager enforces the policy with the assistance of the City staff. The City Commission appoints positions for 34 different boards and commissions within the city organizational structure. The City Manager oversees eight different divisions.

City of Canyon
The City of Canyon is located in Randall County and has a home-rural form of government. Canyon is home to West Texas A&M University and Palo Duro Canyon. The city has just recently passed a 4B economic development sales tax initiative to further their growth.

The Amarillo Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is comprised of four counties as defined by the Federal Register. Carson and Armstrong counties were added to the MSA in 2003 due to 25% or more of the population that commute to Amarillo to work.

Amarillo, Texas is the county seat for Potter County. The county is served by a county judge and four commissioners.

Canyon, Texas, located 19 miles south of Amarillo, is the county seat for Randall County. The county is served by a county judge and four commissioners.

The State of Texas is actively involved in economic development through various programs that encourage growth within the state. The Economic Development and Tourism division was established in 2003 to provide incentives for communities in Texas that are limited in funding options.

Amarillo enjoys a mild climate with four distinct seasons. The city averages 26.31 inches of precipitation annually. Average annual wind speed is 13.6 mph. Area soil types and farming practices prevent airborne dust. Mean number of clear, partly cloudy, and cloudy days are 156.2, 104.8 and 104.3 respectively.

Summer temperatures are moderated by our high altitude (3,676 ft.), with nights 25 to 30 degrees cooler than daytime highs. Humidity is wonderfully low and the breeze is constant.

In the winter, our typically sunny skies raise average daily maximum temperatures to about 50 degrees, even in December, January, and February.

Although Amarillo itself is a relatively young city, having been founded in the late 1880s, hunting points and other artifacts that have been scientifically dated indicate human beings have inhabited the High Plains region for more than ten thousand years.

When, in 1541, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an expedition across this vast grassland, the Native Americans they encountered had never before seen a man of European descent. The arrival of the Spanish explorers would forever change the lives of the native tribes.

As the Texas frontier moved ever westward in the nineteenth century, colonists established trading relationships with the Plains Indians. But the Republic of Texas was never successful in establishing territorial control over the region and there were frequent hostile confrontations between the encroaching Anglo-Americans and native tribes.

Following the end of the Civil War, the U.S. military focused its efforts on controlling and confining the Indian population on the western frontier. By 1875, the Native American population in the Texas Panhandle had been relocated to reservations, making way for an influx of new settlers and huge herds of cattle.

The arrival of the region's first railroad made it possible to transport livestock to eastern markets much more efficiently. In 1888 the town of Amarillo was established next to a huge stockyard where cattle were held before being loaded into railcars. Two years later the town had a population of 482.

Within a few years the burgeoning community began to experience growing pains as demand for municipal services swelled. In 1913 Amarillo became the first city in Texas and only the fifth in the nation to adopt the city council – manager form of government, establishing a model for professional city management.

Natural gas was discovered in the area in 1918 and soon dozens of oil and gas companies were exploring the Panhandle Field, the largest known reserve in the world at that time.

With the advent of mechanized agriculture, farmers began breaking sod and cultivating hundreds of thousands of acres of what had been huge fenced tracts of grassland. The search for wealth and work was already attracting a lot of people to Amarillo by the 1920s, and the city's population swelled by some 27,000 to total more than 43,000 by 1930. Amarillo was well established as the region's hub city.

In 1942 the federal government opened two installations that would have long lasting impacts on Amarillo's future: The military established an Army air field at the Amarillo airport, and the Pantex Army Ordinance Plant was built east of the city. Both were closed after the end of World War II. The air base was reactivated in 1951 and expanded to house a Strategic Air Command wing.

More than 16,000 personnel were stationed at the base when it was closed again in 1967, delivering a severe blow to Amarillo's economy. The Pantex plant reopened in 1950 and produced nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War years. In recent years, the mission at Pantex has been to disassemble weapons and maintain the nation's nuclear stockpile.

While Amarillo's economy was closely tied to agriculture and the energy industry through much of the city's early history, it has continually become more diverse as the city has grown. The arrival of new industry helped shelter Amarillo from the effects of the boom-and-bust cycles endemic to the farming, ranching, and oil and gas businesses.

Copper refining, fiberglass production, meat packing, and many other types of manufacturing have driven much of the city's growth in recent years. In addition, Amarillo has become home to a number of central office and customer service operations employing hundreds of people in white collar jobs.  As a regional medical center, Amarillo health care institutions have grown to employ some 8,000 people.

Amarillo is becoming recognized as Rotor City, USA, a center for the very latest in aviation technology, and is home to Bell Helicopter Textron's Assembly Center where the V-22 Osprey, UH-1Y, nd AH-1Z are built
or remanufactured.

Amarillo enters the new millennium following a full decade of solid expansion and diversification, and is well positioned to lead the region in continued growth.

It's a big world out there, full of information, resources, and additional services to help you get the most from your efforts. Below is a listing of sites covering associations and information sources that we've found valuable and want to share with our community.

Local
Amarillo Chamber of Commerce
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
West Texas A&M Enterprise Network
City of Amarillo
Amarillo College Workforce
SBDC

School Districts
Amarillo ISD
Canyon ISD
Bushland ISD
River Road ISD
Highland Park ISD

Colleges & Universities
Amarillo College
West Texas A&M University
Texas Tech University School of Allied Health Sciences
Texas Tech University School of Medicine
Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy
Texas Tech University School of Engineering in Amarillo
Wayland Baptist University - Amarillo

Regional
Texas Workforce Commission
High Ground of Texas
Panhandle Regional Planning Commission

State
Ports-to-Plains
Texas Governor’s Office
Texas Economic Development & Tourism
Texas Travel
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)
Texas Manufacturers Assistance Center (TMAC)

County
Potter County
Randall County
Potter Randall County Appraisal District

Real Estate
Amarillo Association of Realtors
Texas Panhandle Builders Association

Economic Development
United States Department of Commerce
National Association of Foreign Trade Zones

Visitors
Amarillo Convention & Visitors Council

Transportation
Texas Department ofTransportation
Rick Husband Amarillo Int’l Airport

Railroads
BNSFRailway
Union PacificRailroad

Healthcare
Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System
Northwest Texas Healthcare System
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center