Pampa

Pampa, city, seat (1902) of Gray county, northern Texas, U.S., 55 miles (88 km) northeast of Amarillo. It was founded in 1888 on the Santa Fe Railroad; it was known first as Glasgow, then Sutton, and finally, in 1892 it was named for the resemblance of the surrounding prairie lands to the Argentine Pampas. Located in the Texas Panhandle, the city serves as the centre of an oil-producing, wheat-growing, and cattle-raising area. Its economy is based mainly on petroleum, natural gas, chemicals, and related industries. It was formerly headquarters for the White Deer Land Company, which was one of the world’s largest producers of carbon black and oil-field equipment, though many plants had closed by the 1980s. Pampa is host to an annual rodeo, and its White Deer Land Museum traces the company’s history and contains artifacts from the pioneer period. Inc. city, 1912. Pop. (2000) 17,887; (2010) 17,994.