ZIP Code 79104

Amarillo is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. The estimated population of Amarillo was 200,393 as of April 1, 2020. The city was once the self-proclaimed "Helium Capital of the World" for having one of the country's most productive helium fields. It is also known as "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (as the city takes its name from the Spanish word for yellow) and "Rotor City, USA" for its V-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft assembly plant. Pantex, the only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility in the country, is also a major employer. The attractions Cadillac Ranch, and Big Texan Steak Ranch are located adjacent to Interstate 40. U.S. Highway 66 also passed through the city.Large ranches exist in the Amarillo area; among others, the defunct XIT Ranch and the still functioning JA Ranch founded in 1877 by Charles Goodnight and John George Adair. The United States government bought Cliffside Gas Field with high helium content in 1927 and the Federal Bureau of Mines began operating the helium plant two years later. The Cliffside Helium Reserve is stored in the Bush Dome at the National Helium Reservoir at Bush Dome. The Amarillo-Pampa-Borger combined statistical area had a population of 308,297 as of 2020. It was named after the nearby Amarillo Lake and Amarillo Creek, named in turn for the yellow soil along their banks and shores.

History

Amarillo is the primary city name, but also Bishop Hills, Bushland are acceptable city names or spellings. The official name is City of Amarillo. On June 19, Henry B. Sanborn, who is given the "Father of Amarillo", and his father is called Father of the "Amarillo" The city became a city after he chose a well-watered section along the way of the Fort Worth and Denver City. On August 30, 1887, Berry's town site won the county site and was established in Potter County. The U.S. was the sole producer of  commercial vultures, which were plentiful during the spring and summer. After the town became a town, the town was then a city and the city was a city. The town was a town and the town is now a city, the city is a town. The city's name is now the Spanish word for the color yellow. The country's name was the color of the town, which is now called the city. After a town was born, it was then time to move on to the next town or city, and the next city was the new town, and so on and on until the last town was reached. The next town was the city, which was then the town and then the new city, until it was the town's new town. And so on, until the final town became the city and finally the city became the town. This is the history of the game. It's a battle of the cities, the towns, the cities and the towns. The cities, towns, towns and the cities themselves are the key to this game.

Geography and climate

Amarillo is located near the middle of the Texas Panhandle. It does not share similar weather characteristics with south and east Texas. The city is situated near the Panhandle Field, in a productive gas and oil area, covering 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) in Hartley, Potter, Moore, Hutchinson, Carson, Gray, Wheeler, and Collingsworth Counties. The Potter County portion had the nation's largest natural gas reserve. The region's surface is relatively flat and has little soil drainage. Amarillo has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: "Cfa") The city's historic homes and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places reflect the economic growth from around 1900 to the start of World War II. The tallest peak is reported to be 2,500 feet (760 m) underground in northeast Potter County under the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. Most of Amarillo's population growth and commercial development are occurring in the southern and northwestern parts of the city. From 1978 to 2002, the city co-sponsored Funfest, a family entertainment festival, benefiting the city's parks and the Junior League. At the time, the festival included only the 42-kilometre (26.2 mi) race, the Tallest foot race, and the Community Chest Trust Fund Trust Fund Fund Fund Race. The festival is now held every year on the last weekend of October. It is held in Thompson Memorial Park Memorial Park, near the Amarillo College Campus.

Demographics

In 2020, there were 200,393 people, 76,778 households, and 50,005 families residing in the city, an increase of 5.1% since the 2010 U.S. census. Christianity is the predominant religion in Amarillo and its metropolitan area. There are more than 200 churches in the area as of 2013. About 15.4% of the population lived at or below the poverty line, including 20% of those under age 18, and 12.2% of people age 65 or over. The median homeowner costs with a mortgage were $1,272 and without a mortgage $479. In 2021, about 0.1 per cent of Amarillo's residents identified with Judaism and 2.1per cent followed an Eastern religion such as Buddhism or Hinduism. The closest Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagan meeting officially advertised is located a 5 hour plus drive in Denton, TX despite there being a UU congregation in Amarillos it does not host a CUUPs chapater. According to Sperling's BestPlaces in 2021, 77.83%, 74.53% identify as Christian. Methodists and Pentecostals were the next largest Christian groups, followed by Presbyterians, Mormons, Episcopalians or Anglicans, and Lutherans. Approximately 8.1Per cent of the city's population were of another Christian faith. The average household income was $52,941 and per capita income at $28,274. The city's median age was 34.1 years, and the median income for a family was $64,632.

Economy

Amarillo is considered the regional economic center for the Texas Panhandle, as well as Eastern New Mexico and the Oklahoma Panhandle. The meat packing industry is a major employer in Amarillo; about one-quarter of the United States' beef supply is processed in the area. The helium industry has decreased in significance since the federal government privatized local operations in the late 1990s. The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) is funded by a city sales tax, and it provides aggressive incentive packages to existing and prospective employers. Amazon, Asset Protection Unit, and Texas Tech University Vet School were named some major organizations contributing to the city and metropolitan area's economic growth. Through the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce announced a new initiative to help local businesses rebound from the pandemic. Its tourism industry also rebounded. From 2020 to 2021, Amarillo experienced its greatest amount of economic development in 30 years. The city's largest employer in 2005 was Tyson Foods, with 3,700 employees. Other major employers include Bell Helicopter Textron, Owens-Corning, and Amarillo National Bank and ASARCO. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the AEDC gained notoriety by sending mock checks to businesses across the country, placing full-page advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, and paying an annual $1 million subsidy to American Airlines to retain jet service. It is largely responsible for the development of the V-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft and the future site of Marine One assembly.

Culture

The Palo Duro Canyon State Park is the United States' second largest canyon system, after the Grand Canyon. Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway is the home of the official Texas State Bison Herd. The Big Texan Steak Ranch is famous by offering visitors a free 72 ounce (2 kg) beef steak if it (and its accompanying dinner) is eaten in under an hour. The Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 2006, houses the Amarillo Opera, Amarillo Symphony, and Lone Star Ballet concerts. The Amarillo Livestock Auction on Bull Road holds a free-to-the-public cattle auction on Tuesdays. During the third week of September, the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo brings participants mostly from Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas to Amarillo since 1921. Amarillo hosts the annual World Championship Chuckwagon Roundup the first weekend in June. The city has events and attractions honoring the cowboy and Texas culture. The Pioneer Amphitheater is the setting for the outdoor musical drama Texas, which plays nightly during the summer. The main branch of Amarillo Public Library is located in downtown and operates four neighborhood branches. Other public, public, and college libraries in the Texas Panhandle share resources and share resources with one another. The public library is affiliated with the Harrington Library Consortium, which includes Amarillo College, Canyon Area Library, Lovett Memorial Library, Pampa, Texas, Hutchinson County and Borger Memorial Library in Borger.

Sports

Amarillo is home to the Amarillo Gun Club, which features a variety of clay target sports including trap, skeet and 5-Stand. West Texas A&M University features a full slate of NCAA Division II teams; however, Amarillo College is one of the few community colleges in Texas without an athletic program. The city was the home of the Double-A Amarillo Gold Sox Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League off and on from 1939 to 1982. The Texas League's San Antonio Missions relocated to Amarillo as the Amarillos Sod Poodles and play at the $45.5 million Hodgetown. The Amarillo Independent School District schools' home games are in Dick Bivins Stadium which had a $5.7 million renovation in 2005. Randall High School plays its home games in Kimbrough Memorial Stadium in Canyon, as well as the yearly Clinton Invitational horseshoe tournament. River Road, Highland Park, and Bushland High Schools, also play football, in addition other sports. Amarillo hosted the annual National Women's Invitational Tournament (NWIT) from 1968 to 1996, a post season women's college basketball tournament. Another part of Amarillo's sporting history was its roots in professional wrestling. Dory Funk, Stanley Blackburn and Doc Sarpolis promoted the territory for several decades. Funk's sons, Dory. Funk, Jr., and Terry Funk were both National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Champions and represented Amarillo. In 2019, the Amarilla Sod Poodle's will play in the Texas Baseball League.

Government

Amarillo is the seat of Potter County. The city is the location of the county's trial, civil, and criminal courts. In 1913, Amarillo became the first Texas city and the fifth in United States to use the council-manager form of municipal government. In the Texas Legislature, the city is in the 31st District in the Texas Senate, represented by Kel Seliger, a former Amarillo mayor. The United States Postal Service operates the Amarillo Main Post Office. Other post offices in the city include Downtown Amarillo, Jordan, Lone Star, North Amarillo and San Jacinto. The Texas Seventh Court of Appeals is located in Amarillo. It also operates the Clements Unit and Nathaniel J. Neil Unit in unincorporated Potter County, east of the city. It is in Texas's 13th congressional district, and is represented by Representative Ronny Jackson. It has been in the 87th District of the Texas House of Representatives, having been represented by Republican David A. Swinford since 1991, until 2011. The Randall County Amarillo Annex building is located within the city limits and houses its Sheriff's Office and Justice of the Peace Court, Precinct 4. That part of Amarillo within Randall County is represented in the 86th District by Republican John T. Smithee, who has served in the86th District since 1985. In January 2011, Republican Four Price, who is the current representative for that part of Randall County, replaced Swinford as the city's representative.

Education

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 23.3% of all adults aged 25 and older have obtained a bachelor's degree, and 85% a high school diploma or equivalent from 2016 to 2020. The higher education institutions in the city are Amarillo College, a two-year community college with over 10,000 students; Wayland Baptist University, a private university based in Plainview; Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at Amarillo Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy. West Texas A&M University, headquartered in nearby Canyon, has a campus building in downtown Amarillo. From 1922 to 1938, the author Laura Vernon Hamner, who wrote a novelized biography of Charles Goodnight, served as the Potter County school superintendent. She was a ranch historian and radio personality. In her later years, she lived in the Herring Hotel, owned by Ernest Thompson, and was often known informally as "Miss Amarillo". The city's primary and secondary education is handled by five different school districts: Bushland, Canyon, Highland Park, River Road and Amarillo ISD. The city is home to the Texas Tech Medical School, which offers selected master's degree programs. It is also the home of Texas Tech's School of Medicine and School of Health Professions. The Amarillo Police Department is based in the downtown area of the city, and has a presence in the Amarillo area as well as in the nearby towns of Canyon and River Road. The town has a population of over 1,000,000.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Amarillo, Moore County, Texas = 97. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 79. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 88. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Amarillo = 5.6 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 200,393 individuals with a median age of 34.1 age the population grows by 8.52% in Amarillo, Moore County, Texas population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 1,948.81 residents per square mile of area (752.44/km²). There are average 2.59 people per household in the 71,661 households with an average household income of $41,359 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is of the available work force and has dropped -1.49% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 31.62%. The number of physicians in Amarillo per 100,000 population = 277.4.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Amarillo = 19.7 inches and the annual snowfall = 14.9 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 69. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 259. 91 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 22.2 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 39, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Amarillo, Moore County, Texas which are owned by the occupant = 59.11%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 39 years with median home cost = $94,940 and home appreciation of -0.15%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $15.70 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $4,670 per student. There are 14.5 students for each teacher in the school, 515 students for each Librarian and 370 students for each Counselor. 6.57% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 14.01% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 7.02% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).