Allow us to answer thr memes question…or at least what used to go on there. The panhandle area was Spanish territory until 1821 when it became part of independent Mexico. The Republic of Texas then claimed it when it claimed independence. When Texas became a state in 1845 it surrendered its claim because slavery was prohibited north of 36°30′ latitude by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. 36°30′ became the Panhandle’s southern boundary. Its northern border at 37° was set in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves if they would be slave or free.
For 40 years (1850 – 1890) it was known as The Public Land Strip and most people just called it no man’s land. It wasn’t possible claim land there so squatters populated the area and it was anarchy. Thousands of people came for a basically lawless area filled with moonshine and brothels. One town was called Beer City and was known as “the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Plains.”
