Helium Time Columns Monument and Museum

Helium was a government business long before the columns went up. The first Texas helium came from Petrolia field gas during World War I, at experimental Bureau of Mines plants funded by the Army and Navy to replace explosive hydrogen in balloons and airships, and on July 1, 1925, the government took control of all helium production in the nation. Private sales began only in 1937, at $13 to $15 per thousand cubic feet by 1939. A 1960 borrowing of $252 million, prompted by fears of shortage, had grown with interest to $1.3 billion by 1993.

What the plaque says

Helium Time Columns Monument and Museum Erected 1968, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of discovery of helium in the gaseous atmosphere surrounding the sun. (The discovery of traces of helium on earth was first announced in 1895.) The four time columns are filled with books, documents, and various artifacts that will tell future generations about life in 1968. After the time columns were filled, the caps were welded on and the contents sealed in a helium atmosphere. In twenty-five, fifty, one-hundred, and one thousand years from the time of filling, the four individual columns are to be opened. Helium is an element which occurs in commercial volume in natural gas produced since 1918 from wells in the Texas Panhandle. In 1929 the first of several helium processing plants began operations near Amarillo. Large quantities of helium extracted from natural gas are stored underground northwest of Amarillo, and will provide a valuable source of supply for many years. Once used only in lighter-than-air craft, helium now serves vital needs in industry, science, and the nation's military and space programs. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument — steps away
  Four sealed time capsules raised in Amarillo in 1968 for helium's centennial, in the city that for years produced almost all the world's commercial helium from the Cliffside field.
• Route 66 Sixth Street Historic District — 2.7 mi
  Thirteen blocks of Amarillo's streetcar suburb that Route 66 turned into a roadside strip, from the 1922 Nat to Texaco, Phillips and Dutch Mill stations, now shops and bars.
• Cadillac Ranch — 4.2 mi
  Ten Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 planted nose down in a pasture west of Amarillo by the Ant Farm collective in 1974, on private land where visitors are let in to paint them.
• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 15 mi
  The Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.

More markers nearby

• Amarillo — 1.0 mi
• Amarillo Natatorium ("The Nat") — 2.8 mi
• Route 66 in Amarillo — 2.8 mi
• St. Mary's Academy — 3.7 mi