Golden Spread (Texas Panhandle and Amarillo high plains)

“Golden Spread” is another name for the Texas Panhandle, especially the high plains around Amarillo. It is believed that “Golden Spread” was coined by Bob Izzard of the Amarillo Daily News in 1954. Izzard broadcast “News of the Golden Spread” in the 1950s on KGNC (the call letters are from Globe-News Co.).
 
The term “Golden Spread” is still used today and is in the name of several businesses in the Amarillo area.
 
   
Golden Spread Community Pages
Welcome to the Community Pages for the Golden Spread Region which covers parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Click on the links to the left to go to each area within the region or to see what is happening throughout the region.
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HERITAGE
The term “Golden Spread” was coined in 1954 by announcer Bob Izzard of Amarillo radio station KGNC to promote tourism by publicizing the good weather and travel conditions in the Panhandle area. The word “Golden” was chosen to suggest sunshine and the word “Spread” was picked as an appropriate reference for the large ranch holdings predominant in the area. The Golden Spread, according to Izzard, extends “from Liberal (Kansas) to Lubbock (Texas), and from Sayre (Oklahoma) to Santa Rose (New Mexico).”
 
Through the influence and support of Gene Howe, publisher of the Amarillo Globe News, Izzard began the Golden Spread Campaign. The term “Golden Spread” has been adopted by merchants, chambers of commerce and tourist promoters. KGNC announcer John Garland Smith, affectionately known as “Cotton John” for his agricultural interest, furthered the name recognition over many years with his 6 a.m. farm program introduction: “Good morning, and welcome to the best part of the Golden Spread.”
 
We believe that the name “Golden Spread” signifies the vast riches of this beautiful land. The Golden Spread is blessed with cotton, corn, and golden grains waving gently in the summer breeze; cattle feeding under a warm blanket of sunshine; and oil, natural gas and helium abundant beneath the soil. And most important, this land is blest with her people - proud and strong, with character and determination coming from a colorful heritage, working to make this land and life better for all. We choose Golden Spread for our name because it signifies the great potential of this area.
 
It is in the spirit of Cotton John that we attempt to preserve the heritage, community spirit and autonomy of the Golden Spread through the use of interactive Internet technologies.
 
Amarillo (TX) Globe-News
WDAG made first broadcast with 10 watts of power
Web posted 5/18/97
By RICK STORM
Globe-News Staff Writer
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KGNC entered the picture in 1935 when the Amarillo Globe-News Publishing Co., headed by Gene Howe, organized Plains Radio Broadcasting Co. The company purchased WDAG and KRGS, which by then were well-established stations, and merged the two into KGNC. Ted Taylor was general manager, and Wes Izzard moved over from the newspaper to become production manager.
 
The call letters represented the Globe-News Co., preceded by the K as dictated by the Federal Communications Commission. KGNC joined the NBC National News Network on Jan. 1, 1937. The first coast-to-coast program aired in Amarillo was the National Farm and Home Hour.
 
In addition to music, news and sports, radio also produced such sentimental favorites as Zorro, the Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, the Shadow, Fibber McGee and Molly, George and Gracie Burns and Jimmy Durante.
 
Amarillo generated a mix of radio personalities through the years. Making his first radio broadcast in 1928 over WDAG, Izzard gave more than 10,000 editions of the news at 12:30 p.m. and 7,800 presentations of his evening news analysis.
 
J. Garland “Cotton John” Smith’s slow, southern drawl greeted listeners across the Panhandle with “Wake up and good morning; this is the best part of a Golden Spread Day . . .” from 1952 until his death in 1968. Cotton John was the dean of radio agricultural newscasters and editors in the Panhandle. 
 
Texas Plains Trail
The Texas Plains Trail spans a vast area of the High Plains region of Texas. The table land is called the Llano Estacado, an ancient Spanish term generally interpreted to mean “staked plains.” Much of the Trail slices through what residents call the “Golden Spread,: a reference to this immensely rich agricultural, mineral, and industrial region. Geographically this is the southern-most extension of the Great Plains of the United States.
   
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: Amarillo daily news
morning newspaper of the golden spread.
Publication: Amarillo, Tex. :; Amarillo Pub. Co.
Place: United States; Texas; Potter; Amarillo.
Year: 1909- 
Frequency: Daily; Past: Daily (except Mon.)
Description: Print began with Nov. 4, 1909 issue.
Language: English
Access:  http://www.lib.auburn.edu/BIDB
SUBJECT(S) 
Geographic: Amarillo (Tex.)—Newspapers.
Potter County (Tex.)—Newspapers. 
System Info: Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Note(s): “Independent.” Cf. Ayer ‘85./ Description based on: July 15, 1997; title from journal information screen./ Latest issue consulted: May 1, 1998./ Also issued in print and microfilm eds.
General Info: Accompanied by occasional supplements./ Aug. 23, 1987 issue includes special supplements for the Centennial of Amarillo, Tex./ Also published in an evening ed. with title: Amarillo globe-times. Other editions available: Amarillo globe-times Other format available: Amarillo daily news (Amarillo, Tex. : 1909); Amarillo daily news [microform]
Other Titles: Amarillo daily news (Amarillo, Tex. : 1909 : Online); On Sundays published as:; Amarillo Sunday news-globe; Morning newspaper of the golden spread
Earlier Title: Amarillo daily tribune; (OCoLC)15068519; Daily panhandle (Amarillo, Tex. : 1906); (OCoLC)13832325
 
4 June 1955, Corpus Christi (TX) Times, pg. 2B, col. 8:
Amarillo Golfer Leads
AMARILLO, June 4.—First and second rounds of the first annual Golden Spread Invitational golf tournament were to be played today.
   
28 October 1955, New York (NY) Times, “Brig. Gen. Ray Clark Dies,” pg. 25:
General Clark was a former commander of the Amarillo Air Force Base. After his retirement in 1953 he became chairman of the board of Golden Spread Securities, Inc., an investment firm here. 
 
10 February 1956, Amarillo (TX) Globe-Times, pg. 19, col. 3 ad:
NEWS OF THE GOLDEN SPREAD
6:50 p.m.
MON.-WED.-FRI.
BOB IZZARD
KGNC NEWSCASTER
presents direct reports from the people who make the news on the Golden Spread
10 MINUTES
of local & regional news
KGNC RADIO
710 ON THE DIAL
 
17 June 1958, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Twister Hits Gin Area in West Texas,” section 1, pg. 1:
Farmers at Westway, west of Hereford, said hail damage was incurred in a strip of rich farmland, called the “Golden Spread” in the high Plains across the top of Texas, that reached from 14 miles northwest of Hereford through Westway.
   
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: A catalog of indian artifact collectors in the Golden Spread /
Corp Author(s): NORPAN Archaeological Society. 
Publication: Amarillo, Tex. : Norpan Press,
Year: 1959
Description: iv, 9 p. ; 22 cm.
 
14 September 1959, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “When Panhandle Folk Went Crazy” by Frank X. Tolbert, section 4, pg. 1:
Folks in what Wes Izzard of the Amarillo News calls “The Golden Spread” were ready to believe the telegrapher’s tale.
 
11 July 1961, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Earl of Clarendon Inspired the Name?” by Frank X. Tolbert, section 4, pg. 1:
G. W. ESTLACK, editor of Clarendon’s Donley County Leader, is also a “Lord Clarendon man,” as is Wes Izzard, the Amarillo News publisher-columnist and an authority on the history of “The Golden Spread,” which is what he calls the Panhandle.
     
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: Golden spread farm and ranch directory.
Publication: Amarillo, Tex. : Alford Pub.
Year: 1900s-?
Frequency: Biennial
Description: v.
Language: English
SUBJECT(S) 
Descriptor: Ranchers—Texas—Directories.
Farmers—Texas—Directories. 
Note(s): “This Directory contains a complete up-to-date list of all Farmers and Ranchers in Potter, Randall, Carson, Armstrong, Oldham and Deaf Smith counties ...”—Cover./ Description based on: Apr. 1964-Apr. 1966; title from cover.
 
15 October 1966, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Follett: The Town That Moved to Texas” by Frank X. Tolbert, section A, pg. 10:
As you come in from Oklahoma you are confronted by a big sign in three colors, “FOLLETT, GATEWAY TO THE GOLDEN SPREAD,” and with pictures of a shock of wheat, a Hereford bull and an oil well.
       
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: Street map of Amarillo.
Corp Author(s): Miller Printing Co., Amarillo, Tex. 
Publication: [Amarillo]
Year: 1969
Description: col. map; 58 x 45 cm. folded to 24 x 10 cm.; Scale ca. 1:37,500.
Language: English
Standard No: LCCN: gm 71-1025
SUBJECT(S) 
Geographic: Amarillo (Tex.)—Maps. 
Note(s): Includes “Postal zone” inset./ Index, text, local route map with “Key locations in Amarillo,” and “Map of the Golden spread” on verso.
Class Descriptors: LC: G4034.A5 1969; Geographic: 4034; A5
Responsibility: [Compliments of] Amarillo Chamber of Commerce.
 
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: The golden spread :
an illustrated history of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle /
Author(s): Price, B. Byron.
Rathjen, Frederick W.,; 1929- 
Corp Author(s): Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. 
Publication: Northridge, Calif. : Windsor Publications,
Edition: 1st ed.
Year: 1986
Description: 168 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.
 
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: The Golden spread.
Publication: [Follett, Tex. : Jerry Hughes and Sandy Woods,
Place: United States; Texas; Lipscomb; Follett.
Year: 1989- 
Frequency: Weekly
Description: Vol. 1, issue 1 (Thursday, Sept. 14, 1989)-; v.
Language: English
Standard No: ISSN: 1046-8617; LCCN: sn 89-3140
Other Titles: The Golden spread
Preceding Title: Lipscomb County limelight; (DLC)sn 85000342; 8750-6572
Material Type: Newspaper (new)
 
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: Wes Izzard - voice of the golden spread /
Author(s): Haynes, John Michael. 
Year: 1991
Description: xii, 135 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.
Dissertation: Thesis (M.A.)—Texas Tech University, 1991.
Language: English
SUBJECT(S) 
Descriptor: Broadcast journalism.
Radio journalism. 
Named Person: Izzard, Wesley Sherman. 
Note(s): Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-133).
 
(OCLC WorldCat record)
Title: Amarillo :
the story of a western town /
Author(s): Carlson, Paul Howard. 
Publication: Lubbock :; Texas Tech University Press,
Year: 2006
Description: xiii, 283 p., [32] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Language: English
Standard No: ISBN: 0896725871 (cloth : alk. paper); 9780896725874 (cloth : alk. paper); LCCN: 2006-5719
Abstract: “History of the founding of Amarillo and its progress from a small cowtown to the second largest city on the Texas High Plains. Includes social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of the city’s development through its 118 years”—Provided by publisher.
Contents: The golden spread—The founding of Amarillo—Amarillo in 1900—A city of modern pioneers—Economic development, 1910-1930—The Jazz Age in Amarillo—Amarillo and the Great Depression—World War II and afterward—A period of expansion, 1950-1975—Amarillo in 1980—Agribusiness, oil, and nuclear bombs.