Friday, December 03, 2010

West Texas A&M (Canyon, TX)

One of our Texas Tech graduate students, Kim Corson, gave me some pictures she took at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, while traveling in the region (Canyon is roughly two hours north of Lubbock). West Texas A&M had been known until 20 years ago as West Texas State University, before being annexed by the Texas A&M University system. (The flagship of the system is, of course, Texas A&M University in College Station, way in the southeastern portion of the state.)

The athletic mascot for WT A&M is the Buffalo, depicted prominently in this fountain complex (below).


The inverted nature of the fountain -- that water travels down instead of up -- matches the Inverted Fountain at my undergraduate alma mater, UCLA.

What I also found stunning in the WT A&M photos is the clock tower (and its reflection), with which I formed the following little triptych.


Other attractions on the campus, as described to me by Kim, include the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum...


...with the adjacent T-Anchor Ranch log cabin (which was moved to its present site in 1975)...


...the Wind Engineering complex, which is set to receive the nation's largest wind turbine...



...and finally, this cobblestone-looking building which, according to Kim, was originally a dormitory and is now used for alumni relations.