Our Midland logo carries a Texas longhorn — the breed that worked this range before the derricks — and a Lone Star over "1845," the year of statehood and the shared emblem of every Merlin Classics Texas place. Printed black-and-white with the worn look of a branding iron or a stockyard sign, the longhorn and star read as Texas in shorthand: cattle country, the Lone Star, the open West Texas horizon. What makes this one Midland is the place behind it — the Tall City, the Permian Basin, the wildcatter's gamble, and the skyline standing up off the plains.
The boom has come and gone in waves ever since — the Depression bust, the postwar surge, the 1970s crest that doubled the tallest tower, the 1980s crash — and every cycle left its mark on the skyline. Then, after 2010, horizontal drilling and the Wolfcamp and Spraberry plays of the Midland Basin set the whole cycle spinning again, making the Permian the most productive oilfield in the country and Midland once more one of the fastest-growing cities in America. The wildcatter's gamble — fortunes made and lost on the price of a barrel — remains the town's founding faith.
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.
