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NAMED FOR GEORGE B
McCAMEY
POPULATION 1805
in 2000
MCCAMEY, TEXAS is situated
at the intersection of U.S. Highways 67 and 385, five miles east of the
Pecos River in southwestern Upton County. McCamey was developed almost
overnight as a result of the discovery of oil nearby. In September 1925
wildcatter George B. McCamey struck oil with Baker Well #1.
The day after the well came in, the original townsite company was
organized by a Corpus Christi real estate firm, Burleson and Johns,
Mr. Lon McKinney, Mr. Taylor Emerson, Mr. A. W. Carruthers, and a man
named Brooks. The oil discovery brought 700 hopeful people to the area
and firmly established the new town. Situated on the Kansas City, Mexico
& Orient Railroad, McCamey quickly grew. George Port, land agent for
the railroad, decided to name the town after George McCamey because of
his role in the population of the area.
By 1926 seven major oil companies had leases around McCamey. A
post office was established on March 5, 1926, and the town was
incorporated on December 27 of the same year. Within six months a dusty
tent-and-frame city rose up and was populated by 10,000 people! Soon
thereafter, the Tri-County Record, the town's first newspaper,
was founded by Mr. W. D. Riser. The early years in McCamey were
colorful, filled with the typical boomtown problems of disorder and
lawlessness associated with such rapid growth.
McCamey had one of the first refineries in West Texas, operated
by Humble Oil Company from 1927 until 1932. In 1928 the Shell Oil
Company unsuccessfully tried to build a mammoth storage reservoir to
hold the surplus oil until pipelines to Houston refineries could be
constructed. The huge earthen tank had concrete liners designed to hold
a million barrels of oil, but the weight of the crude oil was too great
for the underlying limestone. The tanks cracked and began to leak and no
solution could be found, so the project was abandoned in 1929.
In 1927 the McCamey Independent School District was established.
A high school and an elementary school building were completed by 1930.
By 1932 the community had declined considerably in population due to the
Great Depression, oil discoveries in East Texas, and changes in oil
production in the West Texas fields. By 1940 the population had dropped
to 2,600 but the town has since remained a strong part of West Texas
industry.
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Energy Capital of Texas