DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little Wharton County wind behind it. The story starts not in Wharton County at all, but over in Matagorda County, where a company called Gulf Sulphur got its footing back in 1909. By 1918, they'd grown into something bigger and changed their name to Texas Gulf Sulphur Company.
They built a plant at a place called the Big Hill Dome, and in 1919 pulled the first sulphur up out of the earth. A company town rose up around that operation and they called it Gulf, Texas. Now that would be a fine enough story on its own, but Texas Gulf Sulphur had bigger plans.
New reserves were waitin' in Wharton County, sitting quiet under a dome of salt and earth called the Boling Dome. In 1928, the company moved on that dome and started operations, and right alongside the industrial work, they built something else entirely — a whole town, from scratch, called Newgulf. And when I say a town, I mean a town.
More than 350 homes. Businesses. A school.
A library. A hospital. A movie house.
A golf course and a country club. Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, and Presbyterian congregations each built their own sanctuaries. The Newgulf Post Office opened its doors in October of 1928, and for decades that little zip code was as real and alive as any in Texas.
Now here's the part that earns this place a spot in the record books. From that Boling Dome, Texas Gulf Sulphur Company pulled out in excess of 80.8 million long tons of sulphur. Eighty point eight million long tons.
That is not a misread. That number made the Boling Dome the largest sulphur production mine in the world. The whole world.
In 1981, Texas Gulf was acquired by a French petrochemical corporation. And then came the quiet end. Sulphur production ceased in 1993.
The Newgulf Post Office, which had opened with such optimism in October of 1928, ended service in March 1994. And then the town itself was dismantled. Among the last company towns to exist in Texas — built for one purpose, sustained by one industry, and when that industry stopped, so did Newgulf.
The marker's been standing since 1996, out there on the flat Wharton County land, marking where eighty million tons of the earth's own minerals once came up to meet the sky.
What the marker says
The Gulf Sulphur Company began in Matagorda County in 1909, and in 1918 changed its name to Texas Gulf Sulphur Company. A plant was built at the Big Hill Dome, and the first sulphur was produced in 1919. A company town was created and named Gulf, Texas. New reserves of sulphur were acquired in Wharton County. When the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company began operations on the Boling Dome in 1928, a new company town was established named Newgulf. The town contained businesses, more than 350 homes, a school, library, hospital, movie house, golf course and county club. Baptist, Methodist, Catholic and Presbyterian churches built sanctuaries. Newgulf Post Office began service in October 1928 and ended service in March 1994. Texas Gulf Sulphur Company produced in excess of 80.8 million long tons of Sulphur from the Boling Dome, to make it the largest sulphur production mine in the world, Texas Gulf was acquired by a French petrochemical corporation in 1981. Sulphur production ceased in 1993, and the town of Newgulf was dismantled; it was among the last company towns to exist in Texas. (1996)