The oil came in 1923. The Santa Rita No. 1 well, drilled out in the Permian Basin, struck a field of staggering size and set off a boom that remade West Texas — and Midland made itself its capital. Rather than the rigs and roughnecks of the field, Midland drew the offices, the geologists, the landmen, and the executives; by 1929 dozens of oil companies ran their Permian operations from downtown. Where blue-collar Odessa worked the field a few miles west, white-collar Midland ran the business. The boom has come and gone in waves ever since, and the horizontal-drilling resurgence after 2010 set the whole cycle spinning again.
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.
