T.P. Tavern

Ernest Tubb, one of the stars of the roadhouse circuit, nearly quit music before his break. Born in Crisp, Texas, in 1914, he learned guitar on his own as a San Antonio soda jerk, and Carrie Rodgers, Jimmie Rodgers's widow, helped him get an RCA Victor contract in 1936. In 1940 he signed with Decca but was earning $75 a week and was almost ready to take a defense job when "Walking the Floor Over You" sold a million records. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1943 and entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1965.

What the plaque says

T.P. Tavern McCamey residents and visitors remember this site of a well-known nightclub. Co-owners Tom Bargesser and Perry Fitzsimmons used their first initials to name the T.P. Tavern in 1927. The first location near Shell Pipeline road served large crowds during an oil exploration boom. In 1934, the business moved here, accommodating more space and a wooden dance floor. Jim Sloan took over management in 1938, adding distinctive teepee insignia to the building. As part of the west Texas roadhouse circuit, the Tavern hosted regional musicians and many who gained national fame, including Ernest Tubb, Lawrence Welk and Bob Wills. Rattlesnake derbies and boxing matches were also popular before the building burned in 1976. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mendoza Trail Museum — 1.2 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) — 16 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 — 23 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 — 1.8 mi
• McCamey — 2.2 mi