Staked Plains

Midland's early papers covered a windmill town and its fires. A stone courthouse went up in 1905. Residents drew their water from wells with windmill pumps; nearly every yard had one, and Midland became known as the Windmill Town. The city incorporated on July 16, 1906. Three fires swept the town between 1905 and 1909, the last destroying much of the business district, and leaders pushed for a water system and a fire department, both in place by 1910. By 1914 Midland had 2,500 people, four churches and an opera house seating 300.

What the plaque says

Staked Plains First newspaper published in Midland County. Printed in 1885 in frame building once on this site. Copies were hand-set and hand printed at rate of 5 per hour on old-style press. County court proceedings were printed at .75 cent per square inch. J. C. Rathbun was editor and publisher. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bush Family Home State Historic Site — 1.0 mi
  The small 1939 frame house on West Ohio Avenue where George and Barbara Bush raised their young family in Midland's 1950s oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site.
• Museum of the Southwest — 1.2 mi
  Midland's art and science museum in the 1937 house of oilman Fred Turner and his wife Juliette, with added galleries, a children's museum and a planetarium on the grounds.
• Permian Basin Petroleum Museum — 2.0 mi
  Midland's museum of the oil basin it sits on, from a restored diorama of the Permian reef to a 40-acre yard of drilling rigs and Jim Hall's Chaparral race cars.
• Midland Army Air Field Museum — 9.1 mi
  A hangar museum at Midland's airport, run by Commemorative Air Force volunteers, telling how a 1927 grass field became the bombardier college that graduated 6,627 officers in World War II.

More markers nearby

• John Valentine Pliska — steps away
• Former Site of Midland National Bank — steps away
• Brown-Dorsey House — steps away
• Site of Midland County's First Bank — steps away