Historical Markers of Texas

280 Baker Ranch School From Ector County Courthouse, take US 385 East Service Road North about 12.5 mile (marker is before intersection of US 385 & SH 158) Since there were no public schools in rural Ector County, R.W. Smith and Teague Baker in 1906 erected an 8'x10' school building in Baker's pasture. ... 20019 Bankhead Highway in Ector County 2710 East 8th St. 311 Barrow Ranch House From Ector County Courthouse, take US 385 North about 7.6 mile, go West on FM 1882 & continue 1/10 mile to Dirt Road going North,(marker on private property on east wall of two houses). (RTHL medallion - no text)

17985 Captain Randolph B. Marcy's Southern Route Expedition State Highway 302 West 8.7 miles from Loop 338 The California Gold Rush in 1849 prompted the U.S. government to appoint army captains to escort prospective gold seekers to California. Captain ... 996 Comanche War Trail (Access. Rd on Bus. IH 20, East of loop 338, near entrance to Sunset Memorial Gardens) Odessa A Barred, Bristling flying wedge--the Comanches--Rode into 18th century Texas, driving the Wichitas and Caddoes East, the Apaches West, becoming ...

18245 Earl George Rodman, Sr. and William Douglas Noel 620 N. Grant Ave. Earl George Rodman, Sr. (1896–1976) and William Douglas Noel (1914–1987) brought the petrochemical industry to Odessa. Rodman and Noel came together ... 1379 Ector County (Bus. IH20, East of loop 338 near entrance to Sunset Memorial Gardens) Odessa. Created February 26, 1887 from Tom Green County organized January 15, 1891, named in honor of Matthew Duncan Ector 1822-1879. Member of the Texas ... 1380 Ector County Courthouse 3rd & Grant on Courthouse Square near West entrance of Courtouse facing, Grant Ave. Seat of justice for Ector, created out of Tom Green County in 1887 and organized in 1891. The 1891 courthouse was frame, the remodelled town sanitarium, ... 1381 Ector County Discovery Well US 80 about 2.5 mile West of Penwell on east access road The discovery of Oil in Ector County December 28, 1926, marked the beginning of a new economic era for this region. The first Well, " J.S. Cosden ... 1382 Ector County Land Rush Courthouse Square, 3rd St. Grant, Odessa Here in 1904 a fight involved almost every man in Ector County, over filing a claim for 4 sections of public land. Elias Dawson and Charlie Lewis ... 1383 Ector County Newspapers 222 East 4th St., Odessa In 1895, William C. "Uncle Billy" griffin came to Odessa from Midland and began publishing Ector County's first Newspaper, the Odessa "weekly news'. ... 1384 Ector County's First Dry Hole West side of Street 917 N. Grandview, Odessa (marker is facing East -small strip center) Drilled in 1924 near this site. Geologists were forecasting oil and urgently-needed potash, but Pennsylvania experts (using a chilled shop core drill) ... 18700 Ector High School 809 W. Clements With the discovery of oil in Ector County in 1926, the area saw a continuous influx of people to work in the oil fields. As the general population ... 1434 El Paso Natural Gas Company's First Compressor Transmission Engine Odessa, 42nd St US. Hwy. 385 at Ector County Coliseum. A landmark tool in man's conquest of energy. This compressor went into use in Culberson County, Tex., on Oct. 1, 1931, and served until 1969, aiding ... 1472 Emigrant Trail From Hwy 80 in Odessa, take US 385 North about 4.6 miles. Road of stubborn seekers of 1849 California gold fields and better life. Bringing the old, infant, the yet unborn and all worldly goods, family wagons ... 16767 Emmet V. Headlee, M.D. NE cor Hwy 191 & Loop 338 -- Chimney Rock Center Emmet V. Headlee was a fourth-generation physician; his great-grandfather, Elisha Headlee, was a civil war surgeon. His grandfather and father practiced ...

22574 First 911 System in Texas 703 N. Hancock Ave. marker pending 14699 First Compressor Transmission Engine Odessa 20021 First National Bank of Odessa N. Grant Ave., W side between N. 4th and N. 5th streets Early banking in west Texas prior to federal and state regulations often consisted of handshakes and few contracts. Lending services were first ...

18514 Gardendale Corner North Gardendale Road and East Larkspur Lane Located in northern Ector County, Gardendale is an area known for horse ranches, oil production and pecan orchards. Prior to 1950, the area was owned ... 2137 General Matthew D. Ector Courthouse Square, 3rd & Grant, Odessa Enlisted 1861. Lieutenant 3rd Texas Cavalry. Fought Arkansas, Missouri and Indian territory. As colonel led 14th Texas Cavalry Kentucky invasion. ... 22579 Ghost Towns and Vanished Communities of Ector County marker pending marker pending 2198 Goldsmith 100 ft. N. of intersection of SH 158 & Hendrickson St. (on Hendrickson St.) , Goldsmith Opened as oil field June 14, 1935, with flow of 1140 bbls. of crude oil daily from discovery well. Within a month, shacks and tents housed 350 people. ...

2543 Homer Robert Henderson In Mausoleum of Sunset Memorial Gardens along HI 20, East of loop 338, Odessa. Texas Ranger; deputy sheriff; county commissioner in Ector and (later) in Crane County. Born in Wilson County; one of 12 children of Robert and Mary ...

3055 LeGrande Survey of 1833 From Ector County Courthouse, take US 385 North about 12.5 miles on East Service Rd. (before intersection of US 385 & SH 158) Made in era of Mexico rule in Texas for John Beales, who through partnerships, acquired 70,000,000 acres of land and gained the title of "Texas" ...

3511 Mrs. John L. Morris (Marjorie) Odessa College, The Globe Theatre. Marker is on the north side of the theater (facing parking lot). Originator, promoter of the Globe of the Great Southwest, world's most nearly authentic replica of the Globe Theater in England made famous by the ...

3607 North Cowden SH 158 at S. City limits, Cowden Site of Ector County's second big oil strike. Named for ranching family of John M. Cowden, an 1885 permian basin settler; one of 4 brothers, ranching ... 3617 Notrees SH 302, Notrees Post Office established 1944 in drug store of C. J. Brown, Jr., who named it in response to U.S. Postoffice Dept. request for title suitable to locality. ...

3666 Odessa From Odessa, take IH 20 West about 14 mile to Roadside Park Founded 1881. Legend says name came from an Indian princess who wandered into camp of texas & Pacific railroad construction gang. others say it was ... 3670 Odessa 8th St. & N. Sam Houston. After the Texas and Pacific Railway extended its line to the South Plains of Texas in 1881, the Odessa Land and Townsite Company of Zanesville, Ohio, ... 3667 Odessa Land & Townsite Company 205 N. Grant St., Odessa The Texas & Pacific Railroad transferred 640 acres of its land grants here in 1886 to John Hoge of Zanesville, Ohio. He formed the Odessa land & ... 3668 Odessa Meteor Crater By mile marker #106, appx. 10 mile West of Odessa on IH 20. East and South (route marked) is located the Odessa Meteor Craters, formed in prehistoric time when a great shower of nickel-iron meteorites collided ... 18244 Odessa Petrochemical Complex 620 N. Grant Ave. In the 1950s, the Odessa Petrochemical Complex was the largest of its kind in the world. The first business to occupy the future complex was the ... 3669 Odessa Telephone Exchange 205 N. Grant St., Odessa Began operation about 1897, with Edna Fielding as "central" (operator). After Miss Fielding's death in 1902, the Rev. G. B. Ely, a baptist minister, ... 3697 Old Buffalo Wallow 4800 E. 42nd St. The nearby depression survives from an epoch when great buffalo herds migrated through west Texas, many moving between present Canada and Mexico ...

3984 Penwell W. City Limits, Hwy. 80. Penwell Birthplace of Ector County's Oil boom. First civic development here was wide-open town, "Derrick City", platted March 1927, after Dec. 28, 1926, ... 3988 Permian Basin Ector Coliseum Grounds, 42nd St., Odessa One of the two richest oil fields in the world. Discovery began in 1920 at a Mitchell County Well. Next came the 1923 big lake strike, then the wild ... 4106 Prairie Dog Prairie Pete Park, 44th at East Co. Rd., Odessa Actually a squirrel. Gets name from its bark. It was food for settlers, especially in drouths. Lives in cluster of burrows called a "Town". Burrows, ...

13490 Site of Blackshear High School 501 South Dixie In early 1890, Inez Rathbun earned money teaching area students at the Ector County Courthouse. About the same time, Ector County organized a public ... 4813 Site of Homestead of William C. Sublett NE corner N. Grandview Ave. and E. 2nd St. (Business Loop 20) Born 1835 in Alabama. Moved to north Texas before the Civil War, in which he served as a Confederate. After his wife died in 1874, he went to the ... 4845 Site of Odessa College 2500th Block US 385, Odessa Established through efforts of Odessa Townsite Co., which gave $12,000; a northern methodist group matched this fund in 1888. Rev. M. A. Daugherty, ... 4853 Site of Old Livery Stable and Wagon Yard 205 N. Grant St., Odessa (near Odessa Police Dept.) Established 1897 as Odessa's first livery stable and wagon yard by Francis M. Tallant. Cowmen stabled their horses, then headed for ranch saloon ... 4894 Site of The Dawson Saloon 125 West 2nd St. (also US Hwy. 80), Odessa (in front of Bldg. facing North) Frontier business of S.T. (TOL) and E.F. (LISH) Dawson, brothers. Lish Dawson, 1891-92 Sheriff of Ector County, had a barber chair in the Saloon, ... 4898 Site of The Odessa Sanitarium 307 N. Grant St., Odessa Established in 1886 by Odessa Townsite Company, the Odessa medical and surgical sanitarium was directed by Dr. R.E. Haughton, a former railroad physician ... 18701 St. Joseph Catholic Church 907 S. Dixie Blvd St. Joseph Catholic Church began in 1948 as a mission of St. Mary’s Church to provide for the needs of the Hispanic community of Odessa. The Catholic ...

5298 The Cable Tool Rig Odessa, 42nd St. & US 385 at Ector Co. Coliseum, (marker is on North side of Grounds & is enclosed in chain link fence) Equipment that replaced the spring pole drilling method used in America's earlier oil fields. The Cable Tool Rig used a bit suspended on a steel ... 5299 The Caprock From Odessa, take IH-20 west about 13 miles to highway rest area/truck weigh station near mile marker 104. A range of flat-topped ridges and cliffs stretching from Texas panhandle to 20 miles South of this point and extending into new Mexico. The name ... 5362 The Jackrabbit Corner of W. 8th & W. Sam Houston, Odessa True plains Rabbit. Lives only in the west. Burro-like ears gave him his name. color is protective, blending with sand and dry grass. Very long legs ...

18513 W.T. Barrett Stadium West end of Sports Complex track adjacent to parking lot on Hwy 302 on the Odessa College campus As the focal point of the city of Odessa for over 30 years, W.T. Barrett Stadium was built in 1948. The stadium, built of steel and wood and nicknamed ... 5697 Waddell Pecan Tree 321 N. Lee, Odessa A few years after Odessa was founded in 1881, a squirrel stole a pecan from a neighbor's porch, and buried it in the yard of W. T. Malone, planting ... 5750 Well's Point W. 2nd St. (Business 20), S side, 0.3 mi. E of Loop 338 Texas & Pacific Railroad Wells. In 1879 railroad headed west out of Fort Worth. Preceding construction - on land later in town of Odessa - water ... 5786 White-Pool House 112 E Murphy, Odessa Charles White (1824-1905) moved his family here from Indiana seeking new business opportunities and a drier climate for his wife's health. With the ...