Kilgore, Texas

From the Great Depression to Oil Boomtown

by Marilyn Loeser

Kilgore is a quiet East Texas community with fast-food restaurants, a Wal Mart and downtown buildings with some age on their faces, and oil derricks. Kilgore is home of "the world's richest acre." During the 1930s, there were more than 1,100 producing wells in Kilgore.

It all began when a 70-year-old wildcatter, Columbus Marion “Dad” Joiner leased the 975-acre farm of widow Daisy (Miller) Bradford, near present day Joinerville.

After unsuccessfully drilling two dry holes south of Kilgore, Joiner drilled a third. Four months later a production test resulting in a gusher — the Daisy Bradford No. 3 came in.

Two months later, the Lou Della Crim well blew in flowing at 22,000 barrels a day. The well was only nine miles from Daisy Bradford No. 3 and turned out to be part of the same massive East Texas Oil Field — an ocean of oil stretching 45 miles long and from 3 to 12 miles wide, a total of more than 140,000 acres.

Kilgore history

Kilgore was founded in 1872 when the International-Great Northern Railroad completed the initial phase of rail line between Palestine and Longview. The rail chose to bypass New Danville a small community approximately 10 miles southeast of Longview in lieu of a new town site platted on 174 acres sold to the rail by Constantine Buckley Kilgore, the town's namesake.

The new town received a Post Office in 1873 and soon began to draw residents and businesses away from New Danville. By 1885 the population had reached 250 and the community possessed two cotton gins, a church and its own school.

By 1929 Kilgore was home to around 1,000 residents. A year later the population had fallen to 500 due to the decline in cotton prices and the effects of the Great Depression.

When the Daisy Bradford No. 3 and the Lou Della Crim wells came in, East Texas was changed forever.

Fortune-seekers and oilmen converged on the town. In less than a month, Kilgore grew to a bustling city of 10,000. Buildings were leveled to make room for drilling rigs. One downtown block in Kilgore was spiked with 44 live oil wells. Eventually, 31,000 wells were drilled.

Production swelled to more than 1,000,000 barrels a day in August 1931 — roughly 26 times more oil than the world could use. Governor Ross Sterling issued a shutdown order and sent 1,300 troops of the Texas National Guard's 112th Cavalry Brigade to enforce it. A long and bitter fight over energy conservation had begun.

By the mid-1930s several laws and other legislation had taken control of the once-rampaging output preventing the loss of huge volumes of natural gas and crude oil. If the East Texas conditions had continued, only one billion barrels of oil could have been taken from the oil field. Experts now say the field will ultimately yield six billion barrels of oil. Conservation principles born at East Texas became models for other fields around the world.

In the 1940s, a drive through Kilgore was unlike any other excursion into East Texas. More than 1,000 wooden oil derricks lined the town’s streets.

East Texas Oil Museum

The first time I visited Kilgore, it was to visit the World's Richest Acre Park, walk among the oil derricks, take a few and read the historic plaques.

On this 1.2 acre site once stood the greatest concentration of producing oil wells in the United States. Over 2.5 million barrels of oil were culled from this location. All but one of the original derricks had been dismantled by the 1960's, but the original still remains along with 26 steel reproductions and a replica pumpjack.

Then, after I heard about a remarkable museum chronicling the area’s rise from quiet depression-era village to oil boom town, I returned a second time.

Located on the campus of Kilgore College, quests are greeted by museum guides. This day Norma Chapman greeted visitors and followed our group in case we had any specific questions.

In the lobby area, several exhibits portray a quiet East Texas community in the early decades of the 20th century — home life, school and church.

“When we needed antiques for our displays, we asked the community,” Norma said.

“You know, when you’re raised during the depression, you don’t get rid of anything,” she said with a laugh. “We had everything we needed within two weeks.”

As we walked past the displays, the school exhibit was only a school desk. “We gave a lot of our collection to another museum to honor the New London explosion,” she said. The London Museum contains memorabilia from the 1937 London School explosion that killed at least 311 students, teachers and visitors.

On March 19, 1937, just 10 minutes before classes were to be dismissed for the day; the public school in New London blew apart. Leaking natural gas had filled the walls and basement of the school building.

“The tragedy emphasized that safety measures can’t be overlooked in the handling of petroleum and its products,” Chapman said. “It was after this tragedy that a scent was added to the odorless natural gas.”

This part of the museum was interesting and seemed historically accurate, but when I walked into a recreated Kilgore — when the largest oil field inside the lower 48 states was discovered — I was truly impressed.

Boomtown, USA, is a full scale town with stores, people, animals and machinery depicting life after the oil strike. You can walk into stores, browse the shelves and take in a movie of historical footage of the boom period.

This town was methodically put together, right down to the planks laid across the ‘muddy’ streets and automobiles sinking into the muck.

An excellent exhibit here is an elevator ride to the “center of the earth.” Two comical puppets guide you 3,800 feet below the earth’s surface to where oil deposits lie. I didn’t understand the geology behind oil deposits and I left the exhibit a lot more knowledgeable about the process of finding and drilling for oil.

Other Kilgore History

Another chapter in Kilgore history is the 1940 brainchild of Gussie Nell Davis — the Kilgore Rangeretts.

Rangerette Showcase and Museum is located on the Kilgore College campus and features mechanized displays of Rangerette props, a display of costumes and thousands of photographs and newspaper clippings dedicated to the first synchronized linear dance troupe of its kind.

During World War II, East Texas was credited with helping “fuel” the efforts of the Allies.

If you go:

East Texas Oil Museum is located on Hwy. 259 at Ross St. in Kilgore. For more

information check the website at easttexasoilmuseum.com or call (903) 983-8295.

During the Christmas season in the 1940s, lights were hung on many of the derricks. 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.

During the holiday season, Kilgore lights up its derricks and produces a sample of what the town looked like some 60 years ago. The lights are turned on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and remain lit until after January 1.

For more information on the Kilgore Rangerette museum, check the website http://www.rangerette.com.

For information about accommodations and other area attractions, check the website http://wikitravel.org/en/Kilgore.