DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it the telling it deserves. You're rolling into Kilgore, Texas — and the marker hanging here calls it the Oil City of the World. That's not boasting.
That's just the address. This town was founded in 1872, when the I.G.N. Railroad came through and a place needed a name.
The name it got came from the man who donated the very site — a Confederate colonel by the name of Constantine B. Kilgore, who went on to serve as a State Senator and a United States Congressman. So right from the start, you've got a town with railroad iron in its bones and a colonel's name on its door.
Now, Kilgore sits at the geographical center of the great East Texas oil field — and when that oil came in, it came in with a fury. The marker talks about the world's greatest concentration of steel derricks. Think about that for a moment.
Not the greatest in Texas. Not the greatest in the South. The world.
You'd look out across this landscape and see steel reaching up from the earth in every direction, a forest of iron built on black gold. Kilgore became the petroleum production, service, supply, and processing hub of the whole operation — and it grew into something more than a boom town. It became a full-fledged commercial, industrial, farming, education, and medical center.
Kilgore College rose up here, and with it came one of the most recognized performance groups in the world — the Rangerettes, a women's precision drill team that put this town on stages far beyond East Texas. And if that weren't enough to carry the name of Kilgore around the globe, this is also the hometown of Van Cliburn — international concert pianist. A town of steel derricks and concert halls.
That's Kilgore. The Oil City of the World, and then some.
What the marker says
"Oil City of the World" Founded 1872 with coming of the I.G.N. Railroad. Named for site donor, a Confederate colonel, Constantine B. Kilgore, State Senator and U. S. Congressman. Geographical center of huge East Texas oil field. World's greatest concentration of steel derricks. Petroleum production, service, supply, processing hub. Commercial, industrial, farm, education and medical center. Home of Kilgore College and its famous "Rangerettes", women's precision drill team; and of Van Cliburn, international concert pianist.