KILGORE, Texas — There's only one place in East Texas where you can take a trip down memory lane to relive the height of the oil boom of the 1930s.
While the rest of the country was in the depth of depression, Kilgore was boomtown in the early 30s. The population exploded as workers hungry for jobs descended on the small East Texas town. Though boom was over in less than a decade, the legacy of that bygone era remains.
The East Texas Oil Museum on the campus of Kilgore College recreates the discovery of oil and production in the early 1930s from the largest oil field inside U.S. boundaries.
"The East Texas Oil Museum was put in place to really be an artifact of what happened," said Fred Gore, Vice President of Administrative Services and Chief Financial Officer at Kilgore College.
Columbus Marion Joiner was the first person to discover oil in Rusk County on October 3, 1930.
The East Texas oil field would become known as the world's richest acre. In fact, if you take a trip outside the museum's doors, you can't miss the towering derricks near downtown Kilgore.
"Because oil was so plentiful here in the 1930s and afterwards, 2.5 billion barrels were pulled out of the ground in this area," Gore added.
Open for 40 years, the museum has survived the last four decades without many updates.
However, that recently changed.
The museum was closed mid-November to receive an overall face-lift and exhibit upgrades.
"The colors have changed, the appearance of the whole museum has changed," Gore said. "The mannequins and the people you see in the town have been modernized. [They look] much more realistic at a much better experience for our visitors in this day and age."
The ETOM is located at 1301 South Henderson Boulevard (corner of Highway 259 and Ross Avenue) on the Kilgore College campus.
To learn more about admission and hours, click here.
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