HI-HO, HI-HO, Its off To Texas We Go

 

I PROMISE TO MAKE THIS POST SHORTER THAN THE LAST ONE.

Now we were on a mad slow dash to New Mexico, via Texas.

PASSING THROUGH GILMER, TX

Our first stop in Texas was a town called Gladewater, near Tyler, TX.

Most of the attractions were either in Kilgore, or Tyler. I have said it before, we are learning to make Monday our travel day since most venues are closed that day.

The middle of the week rolled around so we went out venturing. The first attraction we stopped at was the East Texas Oil Museum.

Before entering the museum visitors are treated to a cooling refreshment:

1929 MAC ICE TRUCK

With the ice provided, visitors had to bring their own beverage.

The museum self-guided tour starts with a small introductory video about oil in E. Texas.

From the video are several exhibits representing the era in which oil was found in east Texas, that era was 1930's. 

HOME IN THE 30'S

RADIATOR CAPS

Throughout the museum are videos and audio information centers. One that I found interesting was about fracking. From the rig site where they would pump the crude, they drilled to the target depth vertically, then would begin drilling horizontally. That bend in the bore hole took a quarter-mile from beginning to end to allow for horizontal drilling. To make the story shorter, they encased the bore hole in concrete, then they sent another device into the bore and blew small holes in the encasement concrete. That small explosions fractured the sandstone so that trapped crude could seep out. 

From that video we moved onto to main street in the little town of Kilgore, TX. Stories are told that earlier years the area was suffering from a drought, but once oil was discovered, the rains came with a vengeance.

Back in those early days there weren't the roads we have today.

Roads were a mess in town because of all the traffic, both vehicle, and horse drawn. 

FLYING PEGASUS

Anybody wonder where Mobil Oil got their logo. Originally it was introduced by Vacuum Oil, a South African country in 1911. After the company went through a merger, the logo was then use by Mobil Oil in 1931. It wasn't until 1968 that Mobil gas stations were adorned with the red Flying Pegasus logo.

Walking through the doors between the front of the museum and the back of the museum was like walking back in time a bit to the era of the oil boomtowns.

GENERAL STORE

INVOICE SYSTEM

WELL SUPPLIES

They had an elevator that visitors could ride down to the oil pocket (pay zone) in the earth.

They even simulated descending down to the "pay zone".

This was an opening with a "rock" wheel rotating to give the impression visitors were going down into the earth.

Unlike some areas where fracking is required, Texas' oil bed is driven by sea water. The sea water was trapped eons ago under the bed of oil, therefore providing a force to push the oil to the surface. They learned in the early days that pulling the water with the oil had several drawbacks. They were dumping the sea water into streams and rivers, which destroyed the eco-system. Second, with less water in the table, the pressure was less, so less oil was being removed. The actions they took to resolve both issues was to inject the sea water back into the table.

Working the oils fields was not an easy task in the 30's, it required a minimum of five men per oil rig.

ROUGHNECKS

In the early days of the boom, derricks were being built at a tremendous pace, only for some of them to be destroyed by the gushing oil coming out of the ground, or worse yet, fires.

The oil fields of E. Texas were densely populated with derricks, personnel, and machinery, which meant that lives and equipment would be lost with a fire. 

There were four methods of "snuffing" out a fire, steam, mud, dynamite, and if the pressure was low enough, they put a metal cap on it.

The rigs used steam, and if there was a fire they would point the boilers toward the fire and let it extinguish it. The second method was to pump mud slush into the fire to smother it. In bigger fires they would use both steam and mud. The third method was dynamite, the explosion would put the fire out, just like blowing a candle out. The fourth method of capping which basically smothered the fire.

Ever wonder where Howard Hughes made some of his money... the petroleum industry. He designed drilling bits for the oil business as far back as 1909. One of his improvements revolutionized drilling by creating a bit that could cut through hard rock, it used two cones of cutting blades. His bits allowed for the worn cutters to be removed and replaced while not having to change the bit body. He continued to improve his design. Between 1925 and 1933 the Hugh's Acme Self-Cleaning cones were introduced

BARBER SHOP/MEN'S GATHERING SPOT

BANK

CYLINDER DICTAPHONE

They even played a movie for us visitors, and where else but...

The two murals on the walls were part of the video presentation. A spotlight lit up a portion of a mural and addressed the era that helped to develop the E. Texas future.

This newspaper man had a story to tell...

It had rained for days, and the streets were nothing but mud. He was standing on the boardwalk outside his office one day and something passed by his feet in the street, he looked down and it was a man. He asked the man if he was stuck, and the man replied... no, but my horse is.

What kind of a town would you have if there wasn't a pharmacy and soda shop... well they had one here.

Does anyone know what "Dixie Cup" flavor is? Look at the Velvet Ice Cream list. It is chocolate and vanilla ice cream, what we would call a swirl today.

Sodas and malts at the front, pharmacy in the back.

Another place you could find people hanging out on a weekend night was "Mattie's Ballroom". A single guy could go to Mattie's and pay for a dance, what was called a "Taxi Dance".

Mattie was a smart businesswoman. When prohibition was in force, she founds legal ways around them. After the party everybody went home... so did we... oh, no we did not.

Also on the college campus was the Rangerette Museum. A small museum about a group of women making it big.

The college decided around 1939 that it needed to "jazz up" school football games. They contacted Miss Gussie Nell Davis, offering her a teaching position, and wanted her to create a half time show. It was finally agreed that she could create a dance drill team. In 1940 the first Kilgore College Rangerettes were introduced to the world. 

Unfortunately they did not allow photography on the second floor, so photos are few. However, I can offer you a before and now photo of their uniform,

ORIGINAL CONCEPT DRAWING OF 

A RANGERETTE

The try-out process is probably close to the same as most drill team try-outs, the difference here is that a girl knows she made it when her number drops out of the ceiling.

Once the number comes down a smaller version is added to this board. The board may or may not get filled, depends on the talent.

This sign was an actual Rangerette.

This is the Rangerette that posed for the artist for that sign.

The Rangerettes appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, have met presidents, and celebrities. One of their more famous Rangerettes was on the Lawrence Welk Show as the "Champagne Lady", dancing with Lawrence Welk.

Upstairs was a timeline of events that happened in the U. S. and what happened in the life of the Rangerettes. It also had an exhibit on the Cotton Bowl, which they apparently perform at every year. They have performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and they will be there this year too. On another wall are boards displaying memories from each years group. The last wall was a map of the world with little Rangerettes in the countries they have visited. 

One of the former Rangerettes and her husband donated money to build a separate dorm and gym for the girls.

Former Rangerettes are called "Forever Rangerettes", and our guide was a Forever Rangerette.

It was a fun little museum that took about two hours, with a guide to tell its story.

Now we headed home. See you in the next post. 

What that so painful?