Midkiff
Midkiff, Upton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The remote community of Midkiff is situated near the intersection of the Midland, Glasscock, Upton and Reagan county lines. Settlement dates from the 1880s, when railroad companies building tracks through the region offered inexpensive land to newcomers. John Rufus Midkiff was one of the first cattle and sheep ranchers to homestead, opening a general store in 1902 in his home in Midland County to serve local cowboys and ranchers. The store had a post office named Midkiff and the area's only telephone with wires strung 30 miles to Midland along a barbed wire fence. A school also operated briefly in nearby Dameron City, serving ranching families until about 1911. The Midkiff area remained sparsely settled until the discovery of oil here in 1950. An oil field camp developed into a town called Hadacol Corner with a motel, cafes and other businesses. Oil exploration in the nearby Spraberry Field continued, and in 1952 the town had hundreds of active wells. That year the town received a post office and revived the name of Midkiff, this time in Upton County. Since the 1950s, area children have ridden a bus 75 miles round trip to school in the county seat of Rankin. At its peak, the town had four churches, although St. Thomas Catholic Church is the only active congregation today. El Paso Natural Gas Company built a large processing plant with company housing east of Midkiff in the 1950s, but it later automated the plant amid safety concerns. In the 1960s, cotton growers built a gin later organized as a cooperative, and in the 1970s a Woman's Study Club began a public library. Today, the local economy relies on ranching, gas and oil, and farming. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tucked where four West Texas county lines nearly meet, Midkiff began in the 1880s when railroads sold cheap land to lure settlers onto the ranching plains. Rancher John Rufus Midkiff opened a general store in 1902 and strung the area's only telephone line thirty miles to Midland along a barbed-wire fence. The sleepy ranch country roared to life after oil was struck in 1950, spawning an oil-camp town before the revived name of Midkiff took hold.
Why it matters
Midkiff's arc from isolated ranch outpost to oil-boom settlement captures the twin engines—cattle and petroleum—that built the modern West Texas economy.
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Related people
- · John Rufus Midkiff
Themes & tags
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