East Texas Oil Museum

The East Texas Oil Museum stands at 1301 South Henderson Boulevard on the Kilgore College campus and keeps the story of the largest oil field inside the United States boundaries. Its stated focus is 1930s East Texas, preserved through artifacts, oral histories and primary documents, and the college describes dioramas, movies, sound presentations and antiques donated by people from across the region.

The center of a visit is Boomtown, USA, a full-scale oil town with rutted unpaved streets, stores, figures of people and animals, and machinery. Its buildings include the Arp General Store, the Overton Drugstore, the office of the Gusher Gazette newspaper, a barbershop and the Pistol Hill gas station, where a video explains how an oil well is drilled. The Boomtown Theater is also on site, and personal photography is not allowed there. Other exhibits cover a church, the history of local schools and transportation, with an antique car. Allow about an hour and a half.

Admission is paid at the museum only. Adults pay $10, children 3 to 11 pay $7, children 2 and under are free, and seniors and military get 10 percent off. Last admission is at 4 p.m., but the museum's own pages list two sets of days and hours, so confirm before you go. Parking is on Ross Avenue behind the building. The museum is accessible, and wheelchairs can be borrowed at the gift shop.