South of Shamrock, US-83 passes over the Salt Fork of the Red River, which definitely deserves its name, running a muddy red throughout the rainy season. West of the highway rise the Rocking Chair Mountains, named after a large cattle ranch established west of here in the 1880s by a group of aristocrats, mainly younger sons of noble Scottish families. The only visible sign of their Hibernian legacy survives in place-names like Aberdeen, Clarendon, and Wellington (pop. 2,450), 25 miles south of Shamrock. Wellington is now a major market town for the surrounding cotton plantations, and during the harvest the gins run round the clock. The center of town is west of the highway, but the US-83 frontage holds four gas stations and four cafés, including the popular Roberson Restaurant (806/447-2951) alongside a dilapidated Quonset-hut machine shop.
