October 3, 1980 – Oil Museum opens in East Texas
Fifty years after the discovery of the East Texas oilfield, the East Texas Oil Museum opened in Kilgore as “a tribute to the independent oil producers and wildcatters, the men and women who dared to dream as they pursued the fruits of free enterprise.” Established with funding from the Hunt Oil Company, the museum at Kilgore College recreates the boom town atmosphere of the early 1930s. Among the more popular exhibits is an “elevator ride” simulation that takes visitors 3,800 feet below the earth’s surface, deep into an oil formation. http://ow.ly/15kP30m4gpZ
