Kilgore

The Handbook of Texas says that on August 17, 1931, Governor Ross Sterling sent the National Guard and Texas Rangers into the East Texas field to shut in all 1,644 wells. The Stephen F. Austin State University Heritage Center says General Jacob Wolters arrived in Kilgore by train that day, and that late in August arsonists burned several Kilgore churches and Wolters banned mass gatherings. Production resumed on September 5 under a proration order, and a federal court ended martial law on February 2, 1932.

What the plaque says

Kilgore "Oil City of the World" Founded 1872 with coming of the I.G.N. Railroad. Named for site donor, a Confederate colonel, Constantine B. Kilgore, State Senator and U. S. Congressman. Geographical center of huge East Texas oil field. World's greatest concentration of steel derricks. Petroleum production, service, supply, processing hub. Commercial, industrial, farm, education and medical center. Home of Kilgore College and its famous "Rangerettes", women's precision drill team; and of Van Cliburn, international concert pianist. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• East Texas Oil Museum — 1.0 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 11 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 24 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler State Park — 25 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Kilgore High School — 0.4 mi
• The New Deal Era in Kilgore — 0.6 mi
• Site of Alexander Institute — 0.6 mi
• The Kilgore I&GN-Missouri Pacific Railroad Station — 0.7 mi