Gardendale
Odessa, Ector County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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 by a Sherman physician and called Neathery Ranch. In the late 1950s, Odessa realtor and land developer Fred Gage and his associates purchased 6,500 acres of land for development. The new community quickly became an attractive option for people seeking a rural environment. The Gardendale Community Association, active since 1970, helped secure a community center and a fire department, along with other community enhancements such as park improvements, a horse arena and other recreational spaces. An annual fundraiser continues to fund community projects and organizations. During the 1970s and 1980s, Gardendale became known for its large pecan orchards, boasting almost 80,000 pecan trees. The local pecan processing facility played a significant role in Texas' rank as the second-largest producer of pecans in 1978. In the 1980s, Gardendale was home to several vineyards, including one of the only table grape vineyards in the state. Drought and harsh weather conditions affected both agricultural industries, despite the proximity to a ground water source known as the Midland Draw. Due to drought concerns, the greater Gardendale Water Supply Corp. Formed in 2000 to deliver reliable water to its residents. The area is also home to a 120-acre Odessa College Rodeo and Agricultural Graham Center and the nationally recognized Odessa College Rodeo Team. The citizens of Gardendale continue to honor their agricultural heritage and traditions.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In northern Ector County, the ranchland once called Neathery Ranch was bought up in the late 1950s by Odessa developer Fred Gage and turned into Gardendale, a rural community that drew families seeking open country. Residents organized in 1970 to build a community center, fire department, and parks, and through the 1970s and 1980s the area flourished with nearly 80,000 pecan trees and even rare Texas table-grape vineyards, until drought pressed both crops. Today Gardendale blends horse ranches, oil production, and a well-known college rodeo program while honoring its agricultural roots.
Why it matters
Gardendale reflects the postwar suburban and agricultural development that reshaped the West Texas landscape amid the oil economy of the Permian Basin.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Midland & Northwestern Railroad
Midland, TX
Built by rancher David Fasken to move cattle, supplies, and passengers, this 66-mile standard-gauge line ran from Midland out to the ranch towns of Fasken, Florey, and Seminole from 1916 to 1920. It was a rough-and-ready operation: trains stopped so crews could open pasture gates and shoot coyotes and rattlesnakes, and stranded passengers were sheltered at the ranch during breakdowns. Abandoned in 1920 after just four years, the railroad left a roadbed still visible across the West Texas prairie.
El Paso Natural Gas Company's First Compressor Transmission Engine
Odessa, TX
This 800-horsepower Cooper-Bessemer compressor engine went to work in Culberson County in 1931 as the first machine of its kind at El Paso Natural Gas Company's original transmission station. Founded in 1928 by Houston attorney Paul Kayser, the company was among the earliest gas transmitters in the Permian Basin. Over 38 years of service the engine ran more than 152,000 hours and moved over 144 billion cubic feet of gas toward El Paso and the Southwest.
The Cable Tool Rig
Odessa, TX
The cable tool rig, which dropped a heavy bit on a steel cable to pound its way downward, replaced the older spring-pole method and let drillers reach the deep formations of the Southwest. Introduced in Texas in 1866, it brought in the first great wells of the Permian Basin, including reconstruction from rigs used at the legendary Santa Rita No. 1, which blew in near Big Lake in May 1923. Texas pioneered much of the surrounding industry, from the first oil lease to the first pipeline and storage tanks.
Permian Basin
Odessa, TX
Beneath the flat West Texas plains around Odessa lies the buried floor of a prehistoric sea, and within it one of the richest petroleum provinces on earth. Discovery unfolded in a rush through the 1920s — a Mitchell County well in 1920, the Big Lake strike of 1923, the wild Upton County boom of 1925 — spreading across dozens of counties as new wells came in by the dozens each week. Fortunes were made and lost in months, and in the frenzy oil could sell for 50 cents a barrel while drillers paid ten times that for drinking water.