Parks Camp
Breckenridge, Stephens County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded in 1918 and named for rancher J.W. Parks, on whose land it was located, Parks Camp was a company town built for employees of the Texas Company (Texaco). The discovery of oil on Parks' land caused an economic boom in the area, and the Parks Camp at its height was home to about 15,000 people. By the 1920s the camp's facilities included a school, bank, post office, stores, community hall, doctors, and rows of individual and barracks-type housing. The town began to decline in the early 1940s and was completely abandoned by the end of World War II.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Parks Camp sprang up in 1918 on rancher J.W. Parks's land after oil was struck, a company town built by the Texas Company (Texaco) for its workers. At its peak it swelled to some 15,000 people, with a school, bank, post office, stores, a community hall, doctors, and rows of barracks-style housing. Like so many boomtowns, its life was short: decline set in by the early 1940s, and it stood completely abandoned by the end of World War II.
Why it matters
Parks Camp is a textbook Texas oil boomtown — a city conjured overnight by a single strike and erased just as quickly, marking the volatile human geography of the petroleum age.
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Related people
- · J.W. Parks
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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