Did You Know There's Villages In The Texas Panhandle?

What do you think of when you hear the word 'village'? Maybe the old adage 'It takes a village'? Village People? YCMA? A cute little gathering of wood huts in some European mountain range?

Now, before you ask me Melissa, what are you talking about? What does a village have to do with anything in Amarillo or the Texas Panhandle?

But bear with me! There's a link.

Definition Of A Village

What is a village? In terms of land? What makes an area a village? According to the dictionary entry:

The word village comes from a French term referring to a group of buildings. That's exactly what a village is—a small community in a rural area.

OK, great. That's established. So why are we talking about villages anyway? Like I said, when I hear 'village' I think of some far-off place. I think of huts and villagers, obviously.

There's A Village In The Texas Panhandle

I kid you not. Someone asked if we knew that we had a village in the area. Surely you are making stuff up. No, though in fact, they were not. I looked it up; they were right.

Timbercreek Canyon is a village. Right here in the Texas Panhandle.

Google Maps

Take this entry from the Wikipedia page:

Timbercreek Canyon is a village in Randall County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 418. It is part of the Amarillo, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area.

So I guess if you ever have an itch to visit a village, you won't have to travel far.

Timbercreek Canyon: Village People of the Panhandle

Now, I checked out their website, and it looks absolutely beautiful. If you are a resident of Timbercreek Canyon, I certainly envy you!

But Wait! There's More Villages in the Texas Panhandle

Much to my surprise, while reading the Wikipedia page for Timbercreek Canyon, I spied a section at the bottom of the page that noted two other villages in the area.

It seems like Lake Tanglewood and the Palisades also fall under the 'village' categories. This is particularly neat to me because I always just saw them as communities. But looking at how the three villages are alike, it makes sense. So there you have it.

So there you are, there's not just one, but three villages to be found outside of town. And they're all easily reached with a short drive down Washington street. Isn't that a neat little fact that will make others scratch their heads and go 'huh, I didn't know that.'