Lou Della Crim Home

Kilgore had a job waiting for the Ranger. The American Oil and Gas Historical Society, citing Watson Wise, says Kilgore had become the most lawless town in Texas when M. T. Gonzaullas was sent to tame it. After about two weeks of raids he marched more than 300 men through town on a steel cable and gave those with no legitimate business four hours to leave. The Stephen F. Austin State University Heritage Center adds that in 1934 he ran for Gregg County sheriff and lost by about 900 votes.

What the plaque says

Lou Della Crim Home This bungalow style residence was constructed in 1920 for Lou Della (Thompson) Crim (b. 1868), on the former site of the Hearne Hotel. The farm she owned at Laird Hill (4 mi. S) was part of an oil exploration project headed by her son Malcolm, later the first Kilgore mayor, and local financier Ed Bateman. Her property gained national attention on Dec. 28, 1930, when the Bateman-Crim Wildcat Well No. 1, the discovery well for this area of the significant East Texas oil field, blew in there. Area Rangers, including the celebrated Capt. M. T. (Lone Wolf) Gonzaullas, were housed here. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• East Texas Oil Museum — 0.9 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 — 23 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

• The Kilgore I&GN-Missouri Pacific Railroad Station — steps away
• World's Richest Acre — steps away
• Site of Alexander Institute — 0.3 mi
• Kilgore High School — 0.4 mi