European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Bryan Price contends the Panhandle is literally America last Frontier. Oeur Joe Are i of Tor the boundaries in the West wore not really done lot the logic of the situation who was there and that sort of thing Luebke said. They were pretty he said officials who through the years carved up the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 simply draw lha lines and Lei the line tall where it a. And in a lot of instances they did t have any idea what the Topography was state sen. Sam Cullan who grew up on a Panhandle farm in Box Butte county says it we weren t the descendants of a people who would do the bold the Danng. The different we would t be talking about merging with Wyoming. We would be living in Philadelphia and Oklahoma talk of secession in Oklahoma is mostly Tongue in Cheek but the 30,000 or to residents of tha three Panhandle counties have Long contended they Are treated like stepchildren by the state s other 74 counties. There was a time when Panhandle residents figured Congress ought to make ii a stale All its own. It All started when Congress laying out states like tiles West of the Mississippi River established the Southern Boundary of the territory of Kansas at tha 371h parallel in 1854. When Texas came into the Union As a slave state it would not extend its sovereignty Over any territory North of a certain line because that territory would be free As specified by the Missouri Compromise. That left a narrow strip of land 34 Miles wide Between Kansas and Texas end extending a total of 158 Miles. The territory of new Mexico was at tha Western end and the Cherokee strip was at the East the area claimed by no slate soon became known As no Man s in the mid-18003, squatters from Western Kansas began moving into the Panhandle and establishing Liny townships. In 1837. Delegates to a territorial Council decided to ask Congress to make the rectangular strip a territory. Instead Congress attached in o Oklahoma territory and the Panhandle was bom. Ii nothing else Panhandle residents can at least look Down on the rest of Oklahoma. The nearly mile High Black Mesa in the Northwest Corner of the Panhandle is the state s highest Point. Florida in 1869, Alabama proposed to Annex the Western portion of the Florida Panhandle and pay Florida $1 million in compensation. Voters in the affected area Wesl of the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers approved the plan and in was submitted to the legislature in 1870 but legislators tailed to act and the annexation Issue was for Gollen until 1982 when then Alabama gov. Fob James said he Vas willing to pay �500 million Lor the Western half of the Panhandle. Rejecting the offer Florida gov Bob Graham declared none of it is for Sale at any Pricel still few deny that a feeling of isolation exists because the Panhandle is so far irom such major population areas As Miami and Orlando. You can Tak to anybody who s Down South says state rep. Tom Tobiassen of Pensacola. They never think of this As a different climate and a sparse population contribute to the feeling of separation Between Northern and Southern Florida and that feeling is stronger in the Western part of the Panhandle than in the Eastern Section which includes the slate capital Tallahassee. The Western Panhandle still called West Florida or Northwest Florida to differentiate in from the Eastern Panhandle known As tha big Bend in t even in the same time Rone As the remainder of the stale. Direct airline flights Between West Florida and other parts of the state even Tallahassee which is 200 Miles from Pensacola Are few. It often is faster to Fly to Atlanta and switch planes when travelling to other cities in Florida and then there Are the economic differences. Tourism and agriculture Are the major industries in sem tropical South Florida but government is the mainstay in the Panhandle with the exception of some Beach areas. West Florida has the military including Eglin fab the nation s largest Tyndall air Force base and Pensacola naval air station. In the big Bend it s state government including the capital prisons and a mental Hospital. West Virginia history and geography have distanced if not divorced West Virginia s Panhandle residents socially and emotionally irom the rest of the state. The Northern Wesl Virginia Panhandle juts sharply upward forming a jagged Horn Between two giant states Pennsylvania and Ohio. It was Jim Forsythe of Wwava radio in Wheeling who called it a schizophrenic situation explaining you have a Small slate wedged Between two big Stales and Large lurking bulks of cities on either Side. It s a most interesting and most unusual geographic quirk Many people Here Are West virginians in name Only. Emotionally Hay Are closer to Ohio and Pennsylvania they pay taxes lowest Virginia but culturally and socially they belong to other the lottery horse racing and Casino gambling received Strong support from Northern Panhandle residents Whilo downstate those issues have been called the Devil s Wheeling got itself a Well earned reputation As a hotbed of prostitution some years ago and it s an image that can persist in other parts of the slate. According to one historian a police chief in 1914 took it upon himself to rid Wheeling of Prosl Lulion but the spirited Campaign altered when the police Chiet was busted on a morals charge. Despite its uniqueness the Northern Panhandle is still More closely linked to the state capital than ils Eastern Panhandle neighbors. The Ohio River which forms the stale s Western Boundary and two fairly accessible interstate highways provide the important links Between Northern Panhandle cities and Charleston in a stale where Remote rugged terrain still mounts major obstacles to physical movement. Those two interstate highways require travel through two other states to reach Charleston Eastern Panhandle residents shop in Maryland seek medical care in Virginia and attend the theater in Washington . Per capita they Are Beller educated and have a higher income than their fellow West virginians. It s easier to get the Washington Post delivered to your Doorstep than to get the Charleston Gazette says or. George Parkinson curator at West Virginia University a state of contrasts some of the nation s highest and lowest unemployment is found in West Virginia. Tha West virginian Coal Miner image is nowhere to be found in the Eastern Panhandle where the Federal government agric Ilure and manufacturing Are the biggest employers Texas in an office High atop an Amanto Texas Bank building former county judge Hugh Russell looked out across the endlessly Flat farm and ranch country below and said you can actually photograph other parts of the country but it s terribly hard to photograph the Texas Panhandle. It jus keeps on going there s nothing to Frame it in Panhandle the town Richard Robinson said much the same thing. You can gel out Here and stretch your eyeballs. I like Trees and All thai but i also like to see where i m going in Dallas Houston fort Worth san Antonio and other Large cities High school football teams can play a 10 game schedule and rarely if Ever leave town. Pern town a Small town to the North once crossed two state tines to play a team its own size in Liberal Kansas when you live this far from Austin you always have in the Back of your mind that they Don t know you exist says Larry Gilley. But i Don t really have a feeling of Hugh Russell notes that two previous Panhandle legislators have been convicted of theft. I think because of that the state manages to run itself More or less in an Able fashion without our help he said with a wry smile. And we continue to run our part of the slate As any person living in jackass Flats is deigned to Byron Price. The Canyon museum director contends the Panhandle is literally lha last Frontier in Texas but America and that a Frontier mentality exists even today. Price describes the people As conservative Independent and very creative and really ahead of our times in so Many he Calls them plungers risk lakers and entrepreneurs and very much in the pioneering spirit of those who settled what once was called the great american desert and set about establishing the cattle business. It is cruelly ironic that the Panhandle s three Basic economic forces Oil cattle and agriculture Are Ell suffering at the same Lime. The people came out Here to conquer the land but Only made an uneasy peace with it said Price it s a hard land. But our people Are a Strong Hardy Bunch and they have a lot of staying the stars and stripes Page 15
