Driller Park
Kilgore, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On April 24, 1947, more than 3,100 fans celebrated the postwar return of baseball as the Kilgore Drillers played the Henderson Oilers on Driller Park's opening day. Erected by the Kilgore Baseball Club for $100,000 on land deeded to the city of Kilgore by S. S. Laird, the park straddles the line between Gregg and Rusk counties. An excellent example of small stadium engineering, the ballpark was constructed of oil field pipe, tank steel, and concrete with an infield underground drainage system. Though the Drillers disbanded in 1950, Driller Park continues to be a haven for baseball in the city of Kilgore. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On opening day in April 1947, more than 3,100 fans packed Driller Park to watch the Kilgore Drillers—a joyful marker of baseball's return after World War II. Built by the local baseball club on land straddling the Gregg–Rusk county line, the ballpark was an ingenious product of the East Texas oil boom, framed from oil-field pipe and tank steel over an engineered drainage system. Though the Drillers folded in 1950, the field endured as a home for the local game.
Why it matters
The park captures how postwar communities—here flush with oilfield ingenuity—rallied around minor-league baseball as a centerpiece of civic life.
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Related people
- · S.S. Laird
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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