Today Midland is the corporate capital of the Permian Basin — a high-plains city of oil and gas, energy professionals, and a downtown skyline that still surprises first-time visitors. The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum tells the story of the boom that built it, and the Museum of the Southwest anchors the city's arts and history. Our Midland designs gather that identity into wearable form — the Tall City, the longhorn-and-star, the oilfield grit, the big West Texas sky. Midland, Texas — where the skyline rises straight out of the plains and the whole town runs on what is buried beneath it.
Midland began as a dot on a timetable. In 1881 the Texas & Pacific Railway laid track across the Llano Estacado — the high, flat, semi-arid "staked plains" of West Texas — and a townsite went up at the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso, first called Midway Station and renamed Midland in 1884. Herman Garrett, a sheep rancher, was among the first permanent residents, and Midland County was organized in 1885. For its first decades the town was ranching country: cattle and sheep on the wide high plains at nearly 2,800 feet.
Why People Visit Midland Texas
- Tour the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, with interactive galleries on the geology and engineering of the oil boom and a replica 1930s Boom Town.
- Visit the Museum of the Southwest, combining art, science, and a children's museum on a historic estate.
- Walk the downtown Tall City core to see the high-rise skyline that rises straight off the plains.
- See the Bush Family Home, a Texas Historical Commission state historic site in a 1940s neighborhood.
- Catch a performance at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center, the region's marquee venue.
