Canadian, Texas

Yes there really is such a place.  The town of Canadian sits above the Canadian river in the Texas Panhandle.  While it did not really stand out anymore so than most other panhandle towns, its more of an oasis than the other ones can be.

The Canadian River, like the other exotic rivers (a river which stays wet and runs throughout the year in an otherwise dry area, like the Nile through the Sahara) of the Great Plains, is something of a welcome refreshment along much of its course.  It carves out a bit deeper of a valley than do the Arkansas, Platte, etc.  The result is an exciting sudden change from rather desert like surroundings...

All pictures in this post were taken along southbound US 83.  The "mountains" in the distance are actually part of the valley edge, and the green immediately beneath/in front of them would be the verdant vegetation of the river bottomland.

...into something remarkably lush.

What a messy window!

The town, in fact, is self-called the "oasis of the Texas panhandle".

The name Canadian probably has little to do with the namesake northern lands quite some distance away, but rather more so to do with an English corruption of the Spanish word cañada (which is nearly cognate with our word canyon) which translates as glen, valley, or, you guessed it, canyon.  The Texas panhandle has many such features, including the more famous Palo Duro Canyon.  Of course, the romantic French-Canadians among us might think it an homage to times past when this was frontier territory marking the boundary between New Spain, later Mexico, and New France, later Canada.  Yes, the summers might be brutal compared to anywhere in Quebec, but there were still once beavers in the river swimming alongside the armadillos and plaid-shirted lumbermen wooing terrified Tejan debutantes.  Alas...