Shamrock, Texas

Everything Shamrock is known for

2 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Shamrock

Songs About Shamrock

Alabama Shamrock
Hackensaw Boys
83%
"Amarillo Shamrock, the road is getting tighter"
hard travelin'
the seldom scene
10%

Artists From Shamrock

B
Bill Mack
rock Pop: 25

Rivers & Roads in Song near Shamrock

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Shamrock.

U.S. Route 66 17 songs Highway I 40 20 songs Canadian River 7 songs

Musical Heritage

Shamrock's Midnight Cowboy RoadyGoat

1929

Shamrock, in the Texas Panhandle on old Route 66, is the hometown of radio legend Bill Mack, "the Midnight Cowboy." Born here in 1929, Mack got his start at the local station KEVA in 1949, then worked Amarillo, Wichita Falls, and Lubbock before settling in Fort Worth. Beginning in 1969 he hosted the midnight-to-5 a.m. show on WBAP, whose clear-channel signal reached much of the country at night; long-haul truckers nationwide listened through the small hours, and a caller dubbed him "Midnight Cowboy." He hosted the trucker show for more than thirty years, founded a Million Mile Club for accident-free drivers, and was inducted into the Country Music DJ and Radio Hall of Fame and the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Mack was also a prolific songwriter: he wrote "Drinking Champagne," a repeated country hit, and "Blue," which became a thirteen-year-old's breakout smash and won Mack a Grammy. He died in 2020.

History of Shamrock

The Real-Life 'Ramone's' from 'Cars' RoadyGoat

If the stunning Art Deco building on the corner of Route 66 and Highway 83 looks familiar, it should. You're looking at the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Cafe, an architectural masterpiece that inspired the animators at Pixar. This building is the spitting image of 'Ramone's House of Body Art' in the movie 'Cars.' Built in 1936 during the Great Depression, its sleek lines, green glazed tiles, and soaring 'nail-head' spire were designed to be a beacon for travelers on the Mother Road. It was a marvel of modern design, combining a Conoco gas station and a cafe into one beautiful structure. After falling into disrepair when I-40 bypassed the town, it was painstakingly restored and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It serves as Shamrock's visitor center, welcoming a new generation of travelers who come to see a piece of movie magic and a true icon of the American road.

The Name That Ran Backward RoadyGoat

You are parked at Twitty, Texas, a Panhandle dot named for a shopkeeper, and yes, it shares a name with a country legend, so let's talk about Conway Twitty for a minute, because the connection is real and it runs backward. The singer was born Harold Lloyd Jenkins in Friars Point, Mississippi, in nineteen thirty-three. When he crossed from rock and roll into a country career in the late nineteen fifties, he wanted a stage name with some ring to it. As the story goes, and as he told David Letterman on Late Night in nineteen eighty-nine, he found it by looking at a road map. He took Conway from Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty from this very town, Twitty, Texas, and welded the two together. So the place came first. The shopkeeper's name was sitting on the map for decades before Harold Jenkins ever borrowed it. His manager later claimed a girlfriend had coined the name earlier, so the accounts differ, but the map story is the one Twitty himself always told. Either way, the sign you just rolled past out here is the original.

RoadyGoat → · 6.9 mi away

More Number Ones Than Anyone RoadyGoat

The little Panhandle town of Twitty, Texas, loaned its name to a stage name, and here is why that borrowed name mattered. Under it, a Mississippi boy named Harold Jenkins became one of the biggest acts in American music. His first hit, It's Only Make Believe, which he cowrote with his drummer Jack Nance while touring Ontario in nineteen fifty-eight, went to number one on the pop chart and sold a million copies. Then he did something unusual. He walked away from rock and roll near its peak and rebuilt himself as a country singer, and it worked beyond anyone's guess. Across five decades he stacked up more number one country singles than any artist had managed up to that point, something like forty of them by the common count, and he wrote twelve of those chart toppers himself. He landed in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Not bad for a stage name a Mississippi boy stitched together from two dots on a Texas and Arkansas road map, one of them being the very town whose sign you are passing right now.

RoadyGoat → · 6.9 mi away

Shamrock - Route 66 and the U-Drop Inn

1936

The Tower Conoco Station (U-Drop Inn) in Shamrock is one of the most iconic Art Deco buildings on Route 66. Built in 1936, it inspired Ramone's House of Body Art in the Pixar film Cars.

Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day Celebration

1890

Early area settler George Nickel and his wife, Dora (Haggard), raised their family in a dugout home in Wheeler County. For his Irish heritage and for its symbolism of luck and courage, George suggested “Shamrock” for a post office approved for their home in 1890. The name was retained when the town of Shamrock was platted along the Rock Island Railroad built through the county in 1902. Shamrock bandmaster Glenn A. Truax envisioned the town capitalizing on its Irish name by producing a one-day celebration to draw thousands of visitors to the “Irish city.” With the help of the Shamrock Boosters Club, the first St. Patrick’s Day festival was celebrated in 1938, linking the local celebration with the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland. The first observance featured such free attractions as a parade, street dance, matinees at the Liberty and Texas theaters, a massed band concert of five hundred pieces from twelve cities, and historical and dramatic presentations, attracting about 12,000 people to a town of less than 4,000. The following year attendance topped 30,000, with parade spectators positioned along streets and the roofs of downtown buildings. The annual event continued until it was suspended during World War II and again during the Korean War. The Chamber of Commerce took over sponsorship in 1952. Shamrock’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration has welcomed many state and national figures in politics, sports, music and entertainment. It has evolved to a multiple-day affair, retaining many original activities and adding several others that have become annual tradition and an important part of the economy. In 2013, the Texas Legislature adopted House Concurrent Resolution 83, proclaiming Shamrock’s celebration the official St. Patrick’s Day celebration for the state of Texas. (2016)

Historical Marker →

Shamrock Water Tower

1911

Soon after residents voted to incorporate in March 1911, Shamrock officials identified the need for a reliable waterworks for the city. Prior to that time, citizens got their water from one of two town wells or hauled it to town in barrels on wagons. A November 1912 election authorized the sale of bonds in the amount of $15,000 for a drinking water system that included a tower and reservoir on Railroad Avenue. In September 1915, city leaders accepted the bid of the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of Chicago, Illinois to build the water tower. The all-steel structure was designed with a cylindrical tank with a hemispherical bottom, supported by four latticed channel columns held together with metal tie rods. The large tank has a capacity of 75,000 gallons, rising 176 feet above ground level. Workers utilized a steam thresing machine to raise the tower's standpipe. The tower was constructed of railway bridge grade steel riveted together using rivet grade steel. Engineers also had to account for the maximum pressure of panhandle winds upon the load of the structure plus the weight of the water. According to records of the CB&I Co., in business since 1889, this substantial tower is the tallest tank of its class ever built by the company, and it remains one of the tallest water tanks in Texas. Built to provide water to a growing community, the Shamrock water tower is also visible for about ten miles in any direction. Early 20th century travelers stopped here to water their horses or wagon teams in the concrete troughs under the tower, and travelers continue to mark their progress by the tower, an engineering and tourism icon. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2008

Historical Marker →

Shamrock, TX

1890

Shamrock, on Interstate Highway 40 (here formerly U.S. Highway 66) in south central Wheeler County, was in the 1980s the largest town in the county. The name Shamrock was first suggested, for good luck and courage, by Irish immigrant sheep rancher George Nickel, when he applied in 1890 to open a post office at his dugout home six miles north of the present townsite. The name was accepted by federal postal officials, but this post office was never opened, probably because the Nickel home burned that same year. Another post office was operated nearby for a short while by postmistress Mary R. Jones. Shamrock had its official beginning with the arrival of the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway in the summer of 1902. In August, town lots were sold at the present townsite, which was then called Wheeler. When Frank Exum, who had recently opened a general store at his dugout-and-frame home, applied for a post office and named it after himself, the Shamrock post office was closed, but the railroad named the stop Shamrock in 1903, and the Shamrock post office reopened. That same year a school opened. From 1903 to 1907 Shamrock, Story, and Benonine competed as market and trade centers. By 1906 businesses from the other communities had moved to Shamrock. The Wheeler County Texan , begun at Story by T. C. Richardson in 1903, became the Shamrock Texan in 1928. By 1908 two banks had been chartered at Shamrock, and the Shamrock Cotton Oil Mill (later known as the West Texas Cotton Oil Company) was open for business. Shamrock was incorporated in 1911 with E. L. Woodley as the first mayor. In 1923 a water main laid from the nearby J. M. Porter ranch eliminated the need to haul water to town in barrels. Later, wells were dug. By 1925 the population had grown to 2,500. Oil was discovered in the area in 1926, and the population had increased to 3,778 by 1930. Local natural gas wells operated by the Shamrock Gas Company gave the town a sufficient fuel supply, and the Texas Utility Company took over the lighting system. In addition to cottonseed oil mills, industry was provided by a compress, a carbon black plant, and a gasoline extraction plant. Just as the discovery of oil in 1926 had hastened the growth of Shamrock, a decline in the oil industry contributed to a decline in population to 3,123 by 1940; by 1950, however, the population had increased again, to 3,326. The improvement of U.S. Highway 66 made the main avenue of Shamrock boom with garages, filling stations, restaurants, and tourist courts; many of these later closed or moved out to the bypass after Interstate Highway 40 was completed. In the 1980s Shamrock continued to prosper. At that time it had modern schools, a chemical plant, several oil and gas processing plants, a hospital, and a nursing home. The population was listed at 3,113 in 1960, 2,644 in 1970, and 2,834 in 1980. In 1984 Shamrock reported a total of ninety-five businesses. Cattle, agriculture, gas, and petroleum continued to be primary in the economy. Ever since Glen Truax, the town bandmaster, started the tradition in 1938, Shamrock has had a St. Patrick's Day celebration on the weekend nearest March 17. This two-day affair features Irish food, fun, and festivities, complete with a parade, a banquet, various other entertainments, and the crowning of Miss Irish Rose. Shamrock is also the site of the annual Eastern Panhandle Livestock Show. A fragment of the genuine Blarney Stone from Blarney Castle in County Cork, Ireland, is mounted on a pillar in Elmore Park. The Pioneer West Museum, housed in the former Reynolds Hotel, a typical drummer's hotel of the 1920s, features exhibits on city and county history. In 1990 the population of Shamrock was reported as 2,286. The population was 2,029 in 2000.

Tsha Handbook →

Poe, John William

1872

John William Poe, buffalo hunter, lawman, and businessman, was born in 1850. During his youth on his grandfather's farm near Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky, he was impressed by the novels of Sir Walter Scott and became possessed with a desire to seek adventures out west. Accordingly, in 1870 he left home and made his way to Missouri, working as a farm hand and with a railroad construction crew. He traveled from Kansas in the company of Dan Hudson and arrived in 1872 at Fort Griffin, Texas, as a center for commercial buffalo hunting; Poe worked briefly on Jim Barton's ranch nearby. Among other occupations he and John C. Jacobs trapped wolves for pelts to sell to the government commissary at Fort Griffin. In 1873 Poe and Jacobs formed a buffalo hunting partnership. By his estimate Poe killed twenty thousand buffalo. The partners hunted until 1878, when Poe became town marshal at Fort Griffin and was commissioned a deputy United States marshal. These positions were good training for him as a peace officer because of the number and variety of crimes at Fort Griffin. In 1879 Poe became a deputy sheriff at Fort Elliott in Wheeler County and continued as a deputy United States marshal. In 1881 the Canadian River Cattle Association employed him as a detective to help end the lawless activities of Billy the Kid ( Henry McCarty ) and his gang. In March of that year Poe went to White Oaks in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he met county sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett . Garrett made Poe a deputy sheriff, and when shortly thereafter McCarty escaped from jail, Garrett and Poe searched for him. After some three months, Poe received a tip that McCarty was at Fort Sumner, and he and Garrett, together with Thomas L. McKinney, another of Garrett's deputies, rode there. On the night of July 14, 1881, Poe and McKinney accompanied Garrett to Pete Maxwell's ranchhouse, where Garrett shot McCarty. Later, Poe was instrumental in securing an indictment against Pat Coghlin, a shady New Mexico rancher accused of hiring assassins to murder neighbors who were scheduled to testify against him at his trial in Mesilla, New Mexico, for cattle rustling. Aided by his reputation as a law enforcer, Poe was elected sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, in 1882. The next year he married Sophie Alberding. The couple lived for a year in Lincoln, then in 1884 moved to a ranch southwest of Fort Stanton. After resigning as sheriff, Poe moved to Roswell, where he engaged in the mercantile business with Smith Lea and W. H. Cosgrove. In 1887 he accompanied Lea to Argentina to seek out a location for a cattle ranch, but he later decided against the venture. Poe founded the Bank of Roswell in 1890 and the Citizens Bank of Roswell in 1900. During this time he became a charter member of the Roswell Masonic lodge and also served on the board of regents of New Mexico Military Institute. During World War I Poe was fuel administrator of New Mexico and served two years as president of the New Mexico State Tax Commission. He died at Roswell on July 22, 1923, and was buried there in South Park Cemetery. The Poes, childless after the death of their newborn son in 1884, enjoyed traveling and made several tours abroad. After Poe's death his widow wrote several books about their overseas travels and in 1936 published Buckboard Days , a biography of her husband. Much of this book deals with Poe's adventures as a buffalo hunter and peace officer in West Texas.

Tsha Handbook → · 12.3 mi away

Benonine, TX

1900

Benonine is on Interstate Highway 40 near the Oklahoma state line, a mile west of Texola, Oklahoma, in southeastern Wheeler County. G. W. Burrow, who later opened a general store in Benonine and served as a deputy sheriff, built the first homestead near the site in 1900. The town started out as a cattle loading point along the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Texas Railway (later the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway) and was called Benonine by 1906. Some historians have mistakenly claimed that the site was named after the Benonine Oil and Gas Company, which was not chartered until 1910, with C. F. Rank of Benonine listed as one of the directors. According to a cattleman's tale, the name Benonine was the result of a card game among cowboys at the loading pen in which a lost nine had been replaced with another card. After a player claimed a winning hand using this card as a nine, he defended himself to a confused newcomer by saying it had "been a nine all night." The town was established by J. Harry Seright, a large broomcorn dealer looking for a place to ship goods out of Texas (to take advantage of the cheaper shipping rate) that was close enough to the state border to get Oklahoma business as well. In early 1909 he, along with his father, A. W. Seright, bought a section of land near the Benonine station and started the Benonine Townsite Company. Seright laid out a townsite and sold lots for the new town. He also unsuccessfully sought to have a Rock Island depot constructed at Benonine, which became a point of contention between the peoples of Benonine and Texola on the other side of the state line. The Benonine plat was recorded in Wheeler County on September 20, 1909. The Benonine State Bank was chartered in September, a post office was established in October, and Seright established the Benonine Democrat newspaper in November. In the winter of 1909-10, Charley Harbert platted an addition to the town. By May 1, 1910, the town boasted, among other enterprises, lumber yards, three general stores, two hotels, grocery stores, restaurants, a livery stable, a bakery, a butcher shop, retail stores, a pool hall, and two barber shops. The 1910 Census showed a population of almost 200 people in the area. A large townsite opening was held on June 15, 1910. Soon after, on July 20, a fire burned the east side of the business district to the ground, causing an estimated $20,000 in damages. It was alleged to have been started by a Texola resident, but no proof was ever discovered. For a short time Benonine had high hopes of prospering as a shipping point. However, growth faltered in the wake of the fire and the emergence of Shamrock as the county's leading business center. People began moving their residences and businesses to the nearby towns of Texola and Erick. By 1913 a lumber yard was still present, but in 1915 the Benonine State Bank was dissolved. By 1918 the post office had been discontinued, and mail rerouted through Texola. Only fifty-seven men registered for the World War I draft with Benonine as their place of residence. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Benonine and its surrounding area (Justice Precinct Seven) had 307 residents, with the only occupations being those related to farming, the railroad switch and loading pens, school teaching, and the operation of a garage and a telegraph. U.S. Highway 66, opened in 1926, went through Benonine. J. Harry Seright pushed to get the Wheeler County section of the highway fully paved, which was accomplished in 1932. In 1936 the school was closed and consolidated with Bethel Rural School. Seright died in 1942, and by 2025 there were no visible remnants of Benonine. The nearby Brooks Ranch became noted, however, for its experimental buffalo herd.

Tsha Handbook → · 12.3 mi away

Things to Do in Shamrock

quirky 0.2 mi away
The Blarney Stone with an Armed Escort

In 1959 Shamrock Texas somehow convinced Ireland to send them a genuine chunk of the Blarney Stone from Blarney Castle in County Cork. The story goes that it…
quirky 0.9 mi away
The Gas Station That Became a Movie Star

In 1936 a wild Art Deco gas station went up at the crossroads of Route 66 and Highway 83 in Shamrock Texas. The U-Drop Inn had two flared towers glazed ceramic…
historical 0.2 mi away
When Route 66 Was Shamrocks Lifeline

In the 1920s and 1930s Route 66 brought a river of travelers right through the heart of Shamrock Texas. The town boomed to nearly 4000 people by 1930 with…
historical 0.1 mi away
The Hotel That Became a Museum

The Reynolds Hotel was completed in 1928 right at the peak of Shamrocks oil boom and Route 66 heyday. For nearly fifty years it housed weary travelers making…
quirky 0.1 mi away
The Gas Station That Time Forgot

Built in just three months in 1929 the Magnolia Gas Station in Shamrock served motorists crossing the Texas Panhandle on Route 66. The station pumped gas for…
quirky 0.2 mi away
The Panhandles Hidden Gas

Most people know the Texas Panhandle for oil and cattle but beneath Wheeler County and its neighbors sits something rarer. In the 1920s scientists analyzing…
historical 0.2 mi away
The Dugout Post Office That Burned

The name Shamrock first appeared in 1890 when an Irish immigrant sheep rancher named George Nickel applied to open a post office at his dugout home six miles…
historical 0.2 mi away
The Irish Rancher Who Started It All

Shamrocks Irish identity goes deeper than a holiday celebration. The town was shaped by Irish immigrants like George Nickel who came to the Panhandle in the…
day trip
U-Drop Inn, Shamrock, TX: Iconic Gas Station on Route 66

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Shamrock

65 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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