Charles Boothe Curry

The boom town Curry policed was rough living. O. C. Kinnison opened a realty office, platted the Crane townsite and named its streets for his own sons and daughters, and early residents put up with board sidewalks and unpaved roads. Water was scarce: people paid a dollar a barrel for water hauled from a well seven miles east, or $2.25 a barrel for better water from Alpine, and it was too precious for anything but cooking or homemade whiskey. Women sent their laundry to El Paso. Crane County had 2,221 people by 1930.

What the plaque says

Curry, Charles Boothe Born in the Smith County town of Troup, C. B. Curry became a law enforcement official at an early age. In Jan. 1933, he joined the Texas rangers and served for two years in Falfurrias and San Angelo. He came to Crane in 1935 as special investigator and helped preserve order during the town's oil boom days. He later served as deputy sheriff and chief of police before going into private business. Curry was married twice and had seven children. Recorded - 1977

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mendoza Trail Museum — 19 mi
  A 1966 museum in a 1925 oil town, named for the Spanish officer who crossed this country in 1683 at the invitation of the Jumano, with a 1915 bungalow beside it.
• Rankin Museum (Yates Hotel) — 27 mi
  The fireproof hotel Ira Yates built beside the Orient railway depot months after oil came in on his ranch in 1926, kept as it was down to the wicker lobby furniture.

More markers nearby

• William Carey Crane — 0.8 mi
• Juan Cordona Lake — 0.8 mi
• Castle Gap — 6.5 mi
• One Hundred Million Barrels of Oil From Block 31 Unit — 7.2 mi