Cross Country USA: Guymon, OK

I was born in Oklahoma City but haven't been in the state more than 6 hours (to give a talk) since we moved shortly after that, but I'm making up for lost time - we're essentially traversing the entire panhandle and northern part of the state. Today was a 'easy' 107 miles with the wind mainly at our back and side and only 675 feet of climbing (I think the lowest of the trip) plus an altitude drop of about 1500 feet. Lots of sorghum (pictured above), corn, and wheat as well as cows of course, and windmills, and a lot of abandoned farmsteads. Wide open country but beautiful in scale. We could see Guymon's water towers and grain elevators from 20 miles away - which honestly is a little frustrating for awhile as it doesn't seem to get closer!

E.T. Guymon bought land in the area in the 1890s and, you guessed it, after the rail line went in a town began to grow and was incorporated in 1901 in Cimarron territory, then OK when it became a state in 1907. An agricultural community, it was devastated during the Dust Bowl era but renewed by the discovery of natural gas in the 1940s and is the largest city in the panhandle.

A quick word (or 30) on the panhandle and its odd geography - when Texas joined the Union it had to cede its claim to land north of the 36d/30' meridian because no slavery was permitted north of that line based on the Missouri Compromise. This left a strip of 'no-man's land' between Kansas Territory and Texas. An introduced bill to annex the land to Kansas passed both House and Senate but Grover Cleveland did not sign it. 'Cimarron Territory' established its own local government which was not recognized by the United States and the area was attached to Oklahoma when it became a state.

Tomorrow we'll dip into Texas for about 20 miles - it's an epic day 140 miles with a strong south wind forecast - if it's SE by 20 degrees we may not finish the day - if it's SW by 20 degrees we'll have a little help...so we'll see what happens!