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KILGORE TEXAS |
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Kilgore became a town in 1872 with the completion of a railroad between Palestine and Longview that chose to plot its path through the new town of Kilgore. Kilgore slowly grew over the years, a quiet little town with its economy based on agriculture. And then in 1930 Kilgore suddenly found itself known world-wide with the discovery of a huge oil field. Eventually over 1,200 oil wells were drilled inside Kilgore's city limits. Some of those oil wells are still producing. |
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The Great Depression had caused a steep decline in cotton
prices. Most of Kilgore was involved in some way with cotton production. Then
suddenly Kilgore went from being a ghost town to a boomtown when wildcatter
Columbus M. Joiner struck oil in the neighboring town of Henderson. The well is
known as Daisy Bradford #3. This well was the first of what became known as the
East Texas Oilfield. By 1936 Kilgore's population had grown to 12,000. The oil rush overwhelmed Kilgore's civic services, like law enforcement. At one point the rowdiness got so out of control it became a martial law situation with the Texas Rangers called in as peacekeepers. |
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Kilgore is on the Holiday Trail of Lights | |||
There is one area of Kilgore known as the "World's Richest Acre." That
is a memorial to this area in the picture above. On this 1.195 acre tract there
were 24 oil well drilling operations, making it the most densely drilled tract
in the world. Even after the oil drilling operations died down the forest of
steel oil drilling derricks stood over Kilgore, marking the greatest
concentration of oil wells in the history of the world. By downtown Kilgore you'll find the World's Richest Acre Park. Here you will see replicas of the derricks that originally sat on this spot, along with a restored pumpjack and a granite monument to the pioneer oil families of East Texas. If you find yourself heading east or west on Interstate 20 and you see the exit to Kilgore, it is well worth getting off the freeway and checking it out. |
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Big Thicket National Preserve | |||