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KILGORE,
TEXASOil Boom
Town
Texas' Official "City of Stars"
Gregg County, East
Texas
U.S. Hwy 259 and State Hwy 31, 42, & 135
33 miles
W of Marshall on Hwy 31
26 miles
E of Tyler on
Hwy 31
120 miles E of Dallas off
I-20
Population:
11,301 (2000) 11,066 (1990)
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View
of "the world's richest acre" in downtown Kilgore.
Over 1,100 producing
wells in Kilgore at the height of the boom
TE photo 5-02 |
In
the 1940s, a drive through Kilgore was unlike any other excursion into East Texas.
More than 1,000 wooden oil derricks -- perhaps the most visible evidence
of the East Texas oil boom -- lined
the town’s streets. During the Christmas season, lights were hung on many of the
derricks. And one plot of ground was known as “the world’s richest acre.” Then,
the underground oil pools played out. Kilgore’s oil derricks began to disappear
and Kilgore soon looked like any other East
Texas community.
Today, steel replicas of the old derricks are back,
thanks to the work of the Kilgore Historical Preservation Society. And the Christmas
lights are back, too.
Each Christmas, Kilgore lights up its derricks
and produces a sample of what the town looked like some sixty years ago. The lights
are turned on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and remain lit until after
January 1.
Stars top the sixty replica derricks, helping the city maintain
its title as the state's official "City of Stars." Kilgore is also among the stops
on the Holiday Trail of Lights, which includes
Marshall and Jefferson
in East Texas and Natchitoches
and Shreveport
in Louisiana.
On Oct. 3, 1930,
in a Rusk County pasture, 70-year-old "Dad" Joiner brought in the Daisy Bradford
3 and unknowingly tapped into the world's largest pocket of oil.
The
resulting oil boom brought thousands of producers and drillers into East
Texas, turned the quiet little communities into raucous boom towns and made
millions for oil producers.
The boom also brought con men, prostitutes,
thieves and other criminals before Texas Rangers were assigned to clean up the
area.
When the Rangers filled up the jails, they chopped a hole at each
end of an old church building, ran a chain the length of the building, and chained
and padlocked prisoners to the chain. If a prisoner need to use a restroom, a
bucket was passed down the chain.
Even though the oil patch isn’t as
prosperous as it once was, oil remains a big part of the economy of Kilgore and
the city remains a popular destination place for tourists who want to learn how
oil in Texas began. Kilgore
has carefully preserved the legacy of its boom years with the East Texas Oil
Museum near the campus of Kilgore College.
Visitors from more than
120 countries have visited the museum, which is not only the cornerstone of oil
history in East Texas, but one
of the leading destinations for tourists in East
Texas.
This Christmas, if you remember the old wooden derricks from
East
Texas’ past, come to Kilgore for a hefty dose of nostalgia from the forties.
© Bob
Bowman
"All
Things Historical" December 19, 2005 Column.
Kilgore
Hotels > Book Here |
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Kilgore ChroniclesGussie
Nell Davis by
Archie P. McDonald
Gussie Nell Davis and the Kilgore RangerettesFDR
and Nine Acres
by Bob Bowman
"With luck -- and an infusion of funds -- a historic Kilgore
home built in the 1930s could be on its way to regaining its stature as one of
East Texas’ most interesting homes. Set in sylvan splendor in the middle of the
East Texas Oil Field, the home of oilman Tom Potter is best known as Nine Acres,
a place where President Franklin D. Roosevelt probably visited in the thirties."
Playmates
by George Lester. A memoir
Kilgore
Hotels > Book Here |
Former depot with oil derricks in Kilgore, Texas
TE photo 5-02 |
Another
view of the "the world's richest acre"
TE photo 5-02 |
| | The
former Crim Theatre in Kilgore
TE photo 5-02 |
The
former Texan Theatre,
"all interior was done in western style decor."
- Jean Broussard. TE photo 5-02
More Texas
Theatres |
Beall
Brothers tile sidewalk sign. The first Beall Store?
TE photo 5-02 |
1931 date plate. Relic of boomtimes.
TE photo 5-02
More
Pitted Dates |
| | Barber
pole and miniature oil derrick
TE photo 5-02 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
or vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. | |
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