County Seat
Canyon Is the County Seat of Randall County
Canyon, founded in 1889, is the county seat of Randall County and home to West Texas A&M University and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.
Lincoln Guy Conner laid out Canyon — first called Canyon City — in the spring of 1889. He named it for nearby Palo Duro Canyon. When Randall County organized that July, Canyon City became the county seat. A small two-room frame courthouse served the town until 1909, when a brick courthouse replaced it. The Pecos and Northern Texas Railway arrived in 1898 and turned Canyon into a cattle shipping hub.
Conner donated 40 acres for what is now West Texas A&M University, which opened in 1910. Canyon incorporated in 1906. By 2020 it had about 14,836 residents. Today Canyon is the main service center for the southern Panhandle.
Source to confirm: Handbook of Texas – Canyon, TX (Randall County)