Midland County
Midland, Midland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Midland County (Created and organized, March 1885) First known as the junction of many trails and site of the last Comanche raid into Texas. In 1881 the Texas and Pacific Railroad was built; equi-distant between El Paso and Fort Worth, this became known as Midland. First settler was a sheepman in 1882. Cattlemen came with Herefords in 1888. Water wells and windmills lured small farmers. Became headquarters for 1928 Permian Basin oil discovery. In 1945 its first well came in. The "Midland Man", oldest skeletal remains in North America (18,500 B. C.), was found in 1954. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Sitting midway between El Paso and Fort Worth on the Texas and Pacific Railroad, the townsite took the name Midland in 1881, and Midland County was created in 1885. The area had been a crossroads of trails and the site of one of the last Comanche raids into Texas before cattlemen, sheepmen, and windmill-watered farmers moved in. The 1928 Permian Basin discovery made Midland an oil headquarters, and in 1954 the ancient "Midland Man" remains were found nearby.
Why it matters
Midland's story compresses the whole West Texas transformation — from Comanche raiding ground to railroad town to capital of the Permian Basin oil boom — into a single county.
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Related events
- · Permian Basin oil discovery of 1928
- · Discovery of the Midland Man remains
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Marcy Trail
Midland, TX
In 1849 an Army expedition under Captain Randolph B. Marcy, guided by a Comanche man named Manuel, crossed the dreaded Llano Estacado of West Texas and proved the staked plains could be traveled. The route Marcy plotted from Doña Ana to Fort Smith became a shorter road to the California gold fields, later carried the overland stage, and by 1881 guided the Texas and Pacific Railroad. This marker stands near that pioneering path.
Captain Randolph B. Marcy's Southern Route Expedition
Odessa, TX
As the 1849 Gold Rush drew thousands westward, the U.S. Army sent Captain Randolph B. Marcy to escort the 'Forty-Niners' toward Santa Fe, opening a wagon road from Fort Smith with the help of the Delaware scout Black Beaver and engineer James H. Simpson. After delivering his party, Marcy set out to survey a return route from West Texas, guided by a noted Comanche named Manuel across the Pecos, the Monahans sandhills, and an old Comanche trail near present-day Odessa. The resulting Fort Smith–Santa Fe road gave emigrants a shorter southern path across the continent.
Castle Gap
Crane, TX
Castle Gap, a natural notch in the Castle Mountains of West Texas, has funneled travelers for millennia — from prehistoric Native peoples who left flint points, to Spanish explorers, California-bound gold-seekers, the Butterfield Overland Mail stages of 1858–1861, and the great Goodnight-Loving cattle drives after 1866. A spring within the gap made it a vital watering stop on the road to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos.
Horse Head Crossing on the Pecos River
Girvin, TX
This ford on the Pecos was one of the great crossroads of the West, where the ancient Comanche Trail from the Llano Estacado to Mexico met the routes of American expansion. Surveyor John R. Bartlett found it in 1850 marked by horse skulls, giving it its name. The Butterfield Overland Mail, the road west from Fort Concho, and the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail all funneled through this single crossing.