Ibex
Albany, Shackelford County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oil drilling in the 1920s transformed this area from cattle ranches to a boomtown. In 1919, the Ibex Oil Co. drilled a successful well into the Caddo Lime formation. Soon other drilling companies came and wooden derricks spread for miles. In 1921, Ibex sold their leases to the Landreth Co. Ed Landreth built a gasoline refinery, water-powered by a dam on Hubbard Creek. Lone Star Gas, Humble Oil and other companies built facilities and dozens of employee homes. Other families slept in tents or open pastures. In the 1920s, the Ibex community had a school, grocery, dry goods, hotels, cafes, and a central phone office. The post office operated from 1923-53 before the population fell. Today, foundations and smokestacks remain from the industrial past of Ibex. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A successful 1919 well drilled by the Ibex Oil Co. into the Caddo Lime formation transformed these cattle ranches into a roaring boomtown, and soon wooden derricks spread for miles. After Ibex sold its leases in 1921, Ed Landreth built a gasoline refinery powered by a dam on Hubbard Creek, and companies like Lone Star Gas and Humble Oil raised facilities and employee housing, though many workers slept in tents or open pasture. By the time the post office closed in 1953 the crowds were gone, leaving only foundations and smokestacks.
Why it matters
Ibex captures the boom-and-bust arc of the 1920s Texas oil rush that turned open range into industrial towns almost overnight—and back into empty prairie just as fast.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Ed Landreth
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
White Elephant Saloon
Albany, TX
On a corner of frontier Albany's original town plat, Alabama businessman Max Blach—who helped bring running water to the town—built this native-stone building in 1884. Leased to J.R. Davis, it opened that May as the raucous White Elephant Saloon, complete with a rooftop white elephant that disapproving citizens soon tore down. After the saloon closed in 1886, the building housed furniture stores, a newspaper, and even a pipe-organ maker's workshop across nearly a century.
Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Griffin
Albany, TX
During the Great Depression the Civilian Conservation Corps put millions of young men to work, and in 1939 a camp opened at Fort Griffin State Park after Shackelford County citizens donated the historic frontier fort to the state. Some two hundred enrollees — soon including local men — built a stone pavilion, park roads, picnic sites, a drainage system, and an entrance gate while attending classes and joining community life. The camp closed in December 1941, and many of its young workers went straight into military service in World War II.
Western Cattle Trail Crossings at Fort Griffin, The
Albany, TX
After the Civil War, Texas cattlemen sought new routes to northern railheads, and in 1874 John T. Lytle blazed what became the Western (or Dodge City) Trail, driving 3,500 longhorns from South Texas toward Nebraska. Fort Griffin became a vital watering and supply point as herds crossed the Clear Fork of the Brazos here and at nearby fords. Within a few years the Western Trail carried the bulk of Texas cattle north—three to five million head in all—until the last drive in 1893.
Eastland County Courthouse
Eastland, TX
Eastland County was created in 1858 but sat so thinly settled that it was not organized until 1873, and its county seat bounced between Merriman, the new town of Eastland, and rival Cisco through a string of hard-fought elections. The Texas & Pacific Railway's arrival in 1880 spurred growth, and the oil and gas booms of the 1910s and 1920s bankrolled a grand Art Deco courthouse, opened in 1928 with carved eagles, shields, and a central tower. The building also gained fame as the home of "Old Rip," a horned toad legend said to have survived sealed in the previous courthouse cornerstone.