Love Bug-Canadian Leather

Please drop this item in rural or Premium Member Only caches.  Do not drop it in an urban cache or leave it behind at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; this prevents the chain and tag tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take this travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission needed to leave the U.S.

This is one of a series of heart-shaped items obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs. They are named either for the places of their origin or for Texas Panhandle-South Plains towns with interesting names or histories.

Canadian is the county seat of Hemphill County. The population was 2,233 at the 2000 census. It is named for the Canadian River, a tributary of the nearby Arkansas River.  The origin of the name of the river is unclear.  Canadian trappers may have camped there or it may simply be a corruption of Indian words. The trails along the river are older than recorded history. Coronado came through the area in 1541 on his way to Kansas in a vain search for the Seven Cities of Cibola.

 In 1840, Josiah Gregg and thirty-four men from Missouri passed through Canadian with trading goods worth $25,000 while en route to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  In 1849, parties headed for the California gold rush passed through, led by Captain Randolph B. Marcy.  Settlers avoided the area for many years due to continuous, perhaps exaggerated reports by government surveyors and cavalry troops of the volatile Canadian River and its treacherous quick sand, scorching summer winds and winter blizzards.  The region was also home to Apache and later Kiowa and Comanche Indian tribes.  In the 1870s and 1880, hunters, cattlemen, and settlers alike used the trails as the Panhandle was opened for civilization.  In the early 1900s, Canadian was a railroad and marketing center.