Silver

The Handbook of Texas says Thomas J. Wiley opened Silver's first post office in 1890, the year a one-room school began, and that drought closed the post office in 1907 for a year. Silver counted ten people from 1910 to 1940. By July 1949 Sun had fifty-nine producing wells in the Jameson field; a rail spur came from Maryneal, and State Highway 208 was paved from Robert Lee. About 1,000 people lived in the company camps, and a million-dollar school complex replaced the small school. By 1986 that complex had become a hog farm.

What the plaque says

A pioneer ranching center, settled about 1880. Early land owners included S.M. Conner, W.G. Jameson and W.R. Walker. Dr. J. E. Reed for 50 years was only physician here. R.B. Allen was outstanding civic leader. Post office, named for peak. Oil discovery, 1946, brought drilling, refining, employees' camps, much growth. the town became busy oil-gas center. After camps closed, 1966, the population declined. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Colorado City State Park — 24 mi
  A mesquite-plains park on a lake built in 1949 to cool a power plant, southwest of Colorado City, where controlled burns are bringing back the grassland and 300 bird species pass through.
• Fort Chadbourne — 25 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.
• Heart of West Texas Museum — 25 mi
  Colorado City's museum in a restored downtown house, from a mammoth dug up at Lake Champion in 2001 to an Ice Age bison and the wartime telegrams sent to a local family.

More markers nearby

• First Producing Oil Well in Coke County — steps away
• Richard Coke — 16 mi
• Fence-Cutting War — 16 mi
• Robert Lee Cemetery — 16 mi