General Ernest O. Thompson

Thompson left Alvord as a boy and was in Amarillo by 1902. As mayor from 1928 he cut utility rates by setting up a competing city gas company and organizing a telephone boycott. On the Railroad Commission he backed prorationing, which held output to market demand; the Handbook of Texas notes that it also let the major companies fix prices and allowed practices such as flaring casinghead gas, so his record is debated. He lost the 1938 governor's race to W. Lee O'Daniel's late entry and finished second again in 1940. He resigned from the commission in January 1965.

What the plaque says

General Ernest O. Thompson Acknowledged world leader in petroleum conservation. A third generation Texan, born here in Alvord. Left college to enter service in World War I, earning a battlefield commission as lieutenant colonel -at the time the youngest in American army. In 1930 gained national acclaim as crusading mayor of Amarillo. Appointed (1932) to Texas Railroad Commission, served by election until 1966. From prior career of lawyer-hotel owner, he stepped into public duty which sent him at once into East Texas during the world's greatest oil boom, to enforce probation. At peril of his life, he shut off non-complying wells and made the petroleum industry respect Texas laws. He became a pioneer in conservation practices. With prompting from President Franklin Roosevelt, he led in 1934 in founding of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission. In Paris in 1937, he represented the United States at the World Petroleum Congress. By presidential order he was returned to Texas by the army in World War II, to insure oil supplies for allied military forces. He was awarded American Petroleum Institute Gold Medal for distinguished achievement, in 1951. As an international authority on oil - a key to world trade - he had great influence on the course of history. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wise County Courthouse — 11 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 25 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 27 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• City of Alvord — 0.3 mi
• Indian Captives Dot and Bianca Babb — 5.9 mi
• Brown Hotel — 7.2 mi
• Battle of the Knobs — 9.1 mi