McCamey Junior High School

The McCamey Independent School District was established in 1927, and a high school and an elementary school building were finished by 1930. The town's boom did not last. By 1932 McCamey had lost much of its population to the Great Depression, the new East Texas oilfield and changes in West Texas production, and by 1940 it had 2,600 people. It stayed an oil town, with large pipelines and storage tanks nearby, and its water system was expanded in the 1940s and 1960s. In 1980 the census counted 2,436 residents.

What the plaque says

McCamey Junior High School Site is "Old High School," an outgrowth of 1920s oil boom. No school existed in McCamey prior to 1925, when 20 students were taught in a tin shack on 5th street. A year later school had 550 pupils in classes held in dance halls, skating rinks and 2 churches. Desks and seats were apple and orange crates. This building, erected in 1927, was community center-- setting for weddings, funerals, meetings of Draft Board, other activities. Used as high school until 1961. First superintendent, C. V. Compton, set high goals-- which since have guided the schools. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mendoza Trail Museum — 0.7 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 — 24 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

• King Mountain — 0.7 mi
• Early Humble Camp in Permian Basin — 0.7 mi
• McCamey — 1.7 mi
• T.P. Tavern — 1.8 mi