Million Barrel Tank
Monahans, Ward County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A project of the Shell Oil Company, the construction of this oil storage tank in 1928 was the result of an oil boom in the area. Built to accommodate crude oil until it could be shipped to refineries, the tank was constructed by crews working on a 24-hour schedule using hand operated and horse-drawn equipment. Covering eight acres of land, the tank was able to hold over one million barrels of oil. It was filled to capacity only once. Efforts to convert it into a water-filled recreation center in the 1950s were unsuccessful, and it became a museum in 1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When crude oil gushed out of the West Texas Permian Basin in the late 1920s, production briefly outran the pipelines and refineries that could handle it. Shell Oil's answer, in 1928, was this astonishing open earthen reservoir—covering eight acres and lined to hold more than a million barrels—built around the clock by crews using hand tools and horse-drawn scrapers. It was filled to the brim only once, later flirted with a second life as a lake-side recreation park, and finally settled into its role as a monument to the boom that made it.
Why it matters
The tank is a physical relic of the oil rush that transformed West Texas and fueled twentieth-century America, capturing the improvised, oversized scale of an industry moving faster than its infrastructure.
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Related events
- · Permian Basin oil boom
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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