Last night I shared a photo of the now-famous sign in front of this ranch, made so by Tom Hanks in the film Cast Away. We are at Arrington Ranch in Canadian, Texas. This house was built by Civil War soldier G.W. Arrington in 1919; his descendants, Mike and Debbie Arrington, rent out the five beautifully furnished bedrooms for only $70 each.

Update: While the previous bit of writing is from the original post, most of what you’ll find here will be from a 2023 update, including every one of the photos below. In the old text, the day was compressed into 333 words, and I’ll be using those as the basis for what else I share about the images I’ve added, but just know that some of the impressions will be coming out of a head that experienced these things 17 years ago. Since the time of our visit out to the Panhandle of Texas to celebrate America’s birthday, the Arrington’s have ceased renting the property. My daughter and I drove by back in 2021 and saw that the place was starting to show its age. I can only guess that the upkeep has exceeded its potential. This state of decay, like that which affects so much across our country, is a sad and tragic comment about what we hold dear.

Last night, we let ourselves in the house, and it turned out that we’d be the only guests for the long weekend; how could this be? This morning, we met Debbie Arrington, who invited us over to their main home. After saying hello to the horses, we headed over to meet Mike Arrington.

Now introduced to both of the Arringtons, we took a walk over a small corner of their thousands of acres of ranch; along the way, we learned about how drought and the misuse of Texas aquifers were destroying ranch life for many in Texas. Mike shared the high costs of having hay shipped in from as far as Canada, yep to Canadian, Texas, and how it made cattle ranching increasingly more difficult. While he may be fortunate to have the Washita River right here on his land, that’s not enough to care for the 5,400 acres of land that require rain to support cattle. We were invited for a swim but being the idiots we have been known to be, opted not to: a mistake.

The Arringtons are part of a group working to preserve their little corner of Texas called the Texas Prairie Rivers Region. After seeing their population dwindle in the 1980s, some ranch owners got together to save Canadian from decrepitude and have since made great inroads in revitalizing this once-thriving corner of Texas.

We’re going south based on the recommendation of Mike and Debbie that the breakfast near and far would be found out there.

Along the way, we’ll have to take inventory of the old houses in ruin peaking through their windows, where we could find them, and seeing what was what.

Some of the places were well aerated with no glass left at all.

At this time in our lives, we were still movie nerds, so being here at the intersection of FM-48 and FM-1268, where the last scene of Cast Away was shot pressed all of our buttons. But this was not where breakfast was to be found.

From there, we had five more miles further south before reaching the small town of Mobeetie, which is also the oldest town in the panhandle. We are at the Cowboy Oasis, a place that created a long-lasting memory, not due to the food but because of the patrons. We walked into no fanfare from the many cowboys in this place but after others walked in, the assembled diners would greet the next person or people as they passed through the front door. Feeling a bit neglected until we left, as we stood up to depart, I introduced everyone to Caroline and me, and with that, the dozen or so people at the Cowboy Oasis wished us a good day, letting us leave with big smiles on our faces for becoming part of the in-crowd.

If there was a map of homes not trashed by people but in a state of natural decay, I’d take that road trip.

We are at the Mobeetie Jail Museum, which is also home to some of the artifacts that remain from Fort Elliot, including the old flag pole that stands near this old cell.

On our quest to see a bit more of the panhandle, we are on a loop drive that is taking us to Pampa and points beyond. This is the Laketon Wheat Growers grain elevator that is obviously no longer in use.

Somewhere out in this vast openness, we drove over to Fritch, Texas, with the hopes of visiting the Alibates Flint Quarries but were foiled by the need for a reservation. Maybe another time.

And so we drove and drove because that’s what you do in Texas.

View from Elsie Road in Panhandle, Texas, on our way back to Canadian.

Ferg’s Cafe in Miami, Texas, is as open as this sign is well cared for (it’s not).

If you only know Texas from a drive across Interstate 10, you too might find Texas to be one of the ugliest states in America, but there really is a lot more to it.

I’m fairly sure we are on FM-2266 heading into a local park.

We are here to see trees and dragonflies. We were not let down.

This is part of the Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area, helping to make our first full day in the Canadian, Texas area a win.