Drought lurked in the minds of all the grownups where I grew up. Even when it rained and there was plenty of water, the focus would shift to how soon that water would be gone.
After a cloudburst, it was a time-honored ritual for my dad to drive us to the bridge over the Salt Fork of the Red River on Highway 83 in Collingsworth County in hopes the river might be roaring. As we would stand there in awe at the sight of those rusty red rapids, my dad would always turn to us and say, somewhat bleakly, “what a shame—all that water going to Oklahoma.”
It’s quite possible that Albert Sidney “Sid” Stinnett, an early-day Amarillo civic booster and businessman, uttered similar words while watching the Canadian River rage bank-to-bank after a deluge. Like my dad, Stinnett thought it was a shame to be blessed with a good rain only to have points beyond benefit from it. And though Stinnett didn’t live to see it, he dreamed of a day when a dam would halt the Canadian’s flood waters in a vast reservoir, ensuring that Panhandle rainfall would benefit Panhandle people…