McCamey

McCamey was laid out almost overnight. A Corpus Christi real estate firm, Burleson and Johns, organized the townsite company with Lon McKinney and others the day after the discovery well came in, and George Port, the railroad's land agent, named the town. A post office opened on March 5, 1926, the town incorporated that December 27, and W. D. Riser founded its first newspaper, the McCamey Tri-County Record. In 1928 Shell tried to store surplus oil in a huge concrete-lined earthen tank here, but the oil's weight cracked the limestone beneath, and the project was abandoned in 1929.

What the plaque says

McCamey Founded 1926. Had 10,00 people in 1927. Named for Geo. B. McCamey, driller of discovery well that by 1964 had led way to opening of 31 oil and gas fields in Upton County. (Discovery well is 2.3 miles north of town). Center for horse, sheep, goat ranching. Has 5 parks. Home of Mendoza Trail Museum. Erected by Upton County Historical Survey Committee. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mendoza Trail Museum — 1.4 mi
  A 1966 museum in a 1925 oil town, named for the Spanish officer who crossed this country in 1683 at the invitation of the Jumano, with a 1915 bungalow beside it.
• Rankin Museum (Yates Hotel) — 18 mi
  The fireproof hotel Ira Yates built beside the Orient railway depot months after oil came in on his ranch in 1926, kept as it was down to the wicker lobby furniture.
• Alley Oop Park and Iraan Museum — 25 mi
  An oil-boom town named for Ira and Ann Yates, where the creator of the caveman comic Alley Oop once worked, and a park of giant cartoon figures beside the town museum.

More markers nearby

• Early Humble Camp in Permian Basin — 1.3 mi
• King Mountain — 1.3 mi
• McCamey Junior High School — 1.7 mi
• T.P. Tavern — 2.2 mi