World's Richest Acre, in fact, is what downtown Kilgore, TX advertises as its claim to fame. And after pumping over 2.5 million barrels out of the ground on this acre, I'm pretty sure they've got a lock on the title!
World's Richest Acre in the late 1930s
Oil Derricks on the World's Richest Acre today
In the days before regulations were enacted forbidding it, there stood a forest of oil derricks over more than 1000 wells on this one acre plot of land. The city has recreated some of that skyline with the World's Richest Acre Park in the original downtown area. Not confined to the park, abandoned oil derricks and pumps are seen in yards throughout the city and the few grand old homes remaining from that era are falling into disrepair.
Lou Della Crim home
Each derrick in the city sports a large star on top and Sid remembers his family making the trek to Kilgore every year at Christmas to see them lit up. For this reason, Kilgore is also know as a City of Stars.
Kilgore, as some of you may know, is also the home of the world renowned Kilgore College Rangerettes. Organized in 1939, it is still today the dream of many high school girls to be a Rangerette.
The Rangerette Museum was closed the day we visited, but this painting is on the side of the building.
Falling under the category of weird, we saw this on our way home from Kilgore. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but each table in this rest area sits under an oil derrick.
Rest Area on I-20
We've now moved to Sid's cousin's house in preparation for boarding Nipper and leaving Julie in their care while we cruise the Caribbean. Not sure when the next post will be, but it's off to blue skies, sumptuous food and ocean breezes for us!
Until next time...
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