First National Bank in Big Spring

The prosperous 1920s the banks enjoyed rested on oil and cotton. Oil was found in the Howard-Glasscock field in 1925, and when the Otis Chalk No. 1 came in on April 18, 1926, the real boom began; wildcatters and speculators flooded the county, whose population tripled from 6,962 in 1920 to 22,888 in 1930. Farming grew as fast, with the number of farms rising from 422 to 1,194. But the gains went with rising tenancy: one farmer in three worked someone else's land in 1920, and three in four did by 1930.

What the plaque says

First National Bank in Big Spring Chartered on April 19, 1890, the First National Bank of Big Spring opened for business on the first floor of a two-story building at the northwest corner of Second and Clinton (now Main) streets with an initial capital of $50,000. The post office occupied the south side of the building until 1927; the remaining space was rented to a variety of tenants. West Texas National Bank, chartered on February 28, 1903, opened in a building on the northeast corner of Second and Main, and in 1909 began construction of a new building on the southeast corner of Second and Main. The 1920s were prosperous years for the local banks, but the Depression of the 1930s brought hard times to both institutions. In 1934 the two banks merged and became the First National Bank in Big Spring. The new institution occupied the former West Texas National Bank building at the southeast corner of Second and Main. In 1963 the bank moved to new facilities at the southwest corner of Fourth and Main. Pioneer ranching families involved with the early banks and the merger made a lasting contribution to the growth and prosperity of Big Spring. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hotel Settles — steps away
  Big Spring's fifteen-story hotel of 1930, built on ranch oil money, once the tallest building between Fort Worth and El Paso, empty and roosted in by pigeons for decades and now restored.
• Big Spring State Park — 1.7 mi
  A CCC drive looping up Scenic Mountain, a 200-foot bluff above the town that grew around the only dependable spring within sixty miles of open Llano country.
• Hangar 25 Air Museum — 2.9 mi
  A restored World War II hangar on the old air base above Big Spring, telling the story of the bombardier school of 1942 and of Webb Air Force Base, which trained pilots until 1977.

More markers nearby

• Howard County — steps away
• The J. & W. Fisher Company — steps away
• First Christian Church of Big Spring — 0.5 mi
• Big Spring School District — 0.8 mi