Welcome to the East Texas Oil Museum at Kilgore College, located in Kilgore, Texas. This fascinating museum houses the authentic recreation of oil discovery and production in the early 1930s from the largest oil field inside U.S. boundaries. Here, visitors see the people, their towns, their personal habits, their tools and their pastimes – all colorfully depicted in dioramas, movies, sound presentations and actual antiques donated by East Texas citizens.
Journey back into the early 1930s to see how people lived. Refresh your memory to the lyrics of a deep-rooted gospel hymn in the church exhibit. Get a lesson in the history of local schools. Imagine how that antique car in the transportation exhibit ever got anywhere on those rough, rutted roads.
Then step across the city limits into Boomtown, USA, – a full-scale town of stores, people, animals and machinery depicting the lively activity of a town booming in oil. Stop in at the Arp General Store and browse the shelves. Take the children to the Overton Drugstore. Don’t get your feet dirty on those rutted streets walking to the newspaper office for a complimentary copy of the Gusher Gazette. As you pass the barbershop, listen carefully for rumors of a new gusher, then pump your own gas outside the Pistol Hill gas station—make sure to go inside and see the video on drilling an oil well.
We aim to preserve, through period artifacts, oral histories and primary source documents that together as a mosaic, document East Texas in the 1930s.