Amarillo, city in northwestern Texas and seat of Potter County. The city also extends into Randall County. Located in a mineral-rich area with cattle ranches and irrigated grain farms, Amarillo is the economic heart of the Texas Panhandle. Most of the helium produced in the United States is processed in Amarillo from local natural gas reserves. The city is served by Amarillo International Airport. Higher education institutions include the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at Amarillo (1973); West Texas A&M University (1910), located in the nearby town of Canyon; and a junior college. Amarillo's cattle heritage can be seen in Texas's largest livestock auction, held weekly in the city's stockyards. The city is also home to the Don Harrington Discovery Center and Planetarium. The community was founded in 1887 as a cattle-shipping point at a junction of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway line; it was incorporated in 1892. The city developed as an industrial center after the discovery of natural gas and oil in the Panhandle in the early 1920s. Its name, Spanish for "yellow," refers to the color of the clay banks of a nearby stream. Amarillo covers a land area of 227.4 sq km (87.8 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 1123 m (3683 ft). According to the 1990 census, whites are 82.9 percent of the population, blacks 5.8 percent, Asians and Pacific Islanders 1.8 percent, and Native Americans 0.8 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report ethnicity. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 14.5 percent of the people. Population 149,230 (1980); 157,615 (1990); 169,588 (1996 estimate).