The first productive well in the East Texas Oil Field was drilled by Columbus Marion “Dad” Joiner on October 3, 1930. Three months later the Bateman Oil Company hit oil only nine miles away. As the news spread oil speculators, rough necks, wildcatters, and hustlers poured into Kilgore. The population exploded growing from 500 people to over 12,000. Soon a hundred wells were being drilled everyday. The oil fields produced over 6 billion barrels of oil but the boom only lasted until 1940.
The museum has exhibits about pioneer life and the discovery of oil. The Boomtown, USA exhibit depicts the town as it was in the 1930s with rutted muddy streets and boardwalks along the storefronts. Visitors can peek in the windows or go into the stores to see the exhibits. There are two theaters. One theater has a film about the history of the area, the other features a
simulation of an elevator taking visitors down through the layers of rock to the oil deposit. A pair of marionettes puppets are the guides.
The museum is accessible but visitors in wheelchairs should use caution at the entrance to the Boomtown exhibit because the floor slopes down to the town level. There are spaces for RVs and buses on Laird Ave on south side of the museum. There's also a large parking lot behind the museum.
A short drive will take you to the section of Kilgore nicknamed The World's Richest Acre. All but one of the rigs that lined the streets in the 1930s were dismantled in the 1960s. In the 1990s a park was created and 36 of rigs were put back in their original locations. There are a few signs but not much of anything else.
There are only a few good curb cuts on the west side of North Commerce Street. None on the east side.
Parking is available on the street. Museum 32.37696, -94.87024 Richest Acre 32.3869, -94.87626
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