Skip to content

Borger, Texas

Everything Borger is known for

2 songs mention this city

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Borger. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Sign up for the free newsletter Get the iPhone app

Music in Borger

Songs About Borger

canadian river waltx
R.W. Hampton
25%
Texas Oil Field
Woody Guthrie
7%
"And I found Borger"

Artists From Borger

No artists from Borger in the database yet.

Know one? Add it →

Rivers & Roads in Song near Borger

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Borger.

Canadian River 7 songs Highway I 40 21 songs U.S. Route 66 19 songs

History of Borger

When the Texas Rangers Cleaned Up 'Booger Town' RoadyGoat

In its first year, Borger was known as 'Booger Town,' and it earned the name. The streets you're driving on now were the scene of open lawlessness, controlled by a crime boss named 'Two-Gun Dick' Herwig. His syndicate ran everything—bootlegging, gambling, prostitution—and the local sheriff's department was on his payroll. Murders were a weekly, sometimes daily, occurrence. In the spring of nineteen twenty-seven, Governor Daniel Moody sent in the Texas Rangers, led by Captains Frank Hamer and Tom Hickman. They seized stills and slot machines, made around fifty arrests, and drove a good many undesirables out of town. It steadied the place for a while, but it didn't break the syndicate's grip—the crooked officials stayed in office, and the crime crept right back through the rest of the decade. The reckoning didn't come until nineteen twenty-nine. On September eighteenth of that year, District Attorney John Holmes was assassinated, and ten days later Governor Moody declared martial law and sent in the Texas National Guard under General Jacob Wolters. This time the cleanup was total: the sheriff, the mayor, the city commission, and the entire police department were forced out, raids ran around the clock, and every illegal still in town was shut down. By the middle of October, it was over. It was a scene straight out of the Old West, but it happened here, in the late nineteen-twenties, transforming Borger from a criminal den into a civil town.

RoadyGoat →

Borger, TX RoadyGoat

Borger is home to the world's largest inland petrochemical complexes. Major companies operating in the area include Chevron-Phillips Chemical Company, which produces specialty chemicals, and Solvay, which manufactures RYTON PPS plastics. Phillips 66 Petroleum Company processes crude oil and natural gas liquids, while Agrium produces nitrogen fertilizer in its Borger plant. These facilities highlight Borger's significance in the petroleum and chemical industries.

RoadyGoat →

Borger, TX RoadyGoat

The city was named for businessman Asa Philip "Ace" Borger, a key figure in its early development. He not only established this town but also the county seat of Stinnett and several other communities in Texas and Oklahoma. The boomtown era also attracted notable, albeit notorious, figures.

Borger - Boomtown Under Martial Law

1926

Founded in 1926 after oil was discovered in the Panhandle field. Borger became so lawless that the Texas Rangers occupied the town in 1929 and the state placed it under martial law.

Historical Marker →

Borger, Asa Phillip

1926

Asa Phillip (Ace) Borger, town builder, was born to Phillip and Minnie Ann (West) Borger on April 12, 1888, on the family farm near Carthage, Missouri. His father, a veterinarian, died when Ace was six, and the Borger children were raised by their mother and two grandmothers. Borger attended school in Carthage and graduated from business college. Around 1907 he married a classmate, Elizabeth Willoughby. The couple spent their first years in a rented farmhouse near Carthage, where Borger opened a lumberyard; they had three children. Borger began his career as a town promoter when World War I broke out in Europe. In 1915 he and his younger brother Lester Andrew (Pete) sold real estate in the mining town of Picher, Oklahoma, in the center of valuable lead and zinc deposits. Much lead was produced from Picher for the war effort. In 1917 the Borgers, in company with the noted wildcatter Tom Slick, laid out the oil town of Slick near Bristow, Oklahoma. At each town the Borgers and their associates built hotels, filling stations, and lumberyards, sold real estate, and pushed for the building of railroad lines to the sites. In 1922 they successfully launched Cromwell, Oklahoma, as a boomtown. Though Borger and his family maintained a home for a time in each of these towns, he continued to use Carthage as his main base. Borger became interested in the discovery of the Panhandle oilfield. Early in 1926, after personally checking out the reports, he purchased 240 acres from rancher John Frank Weatherly at fifty dollars an acre. He next obtained a grant from Texas secretary of state Emma Grigsby Meharg to organize the Borger Townsite Company, with capital stock of $10,000 divided into 100 shares of $100 each. In addition to Borger himself, the company's stockholders included C. C. Horton of the Gulf Oil Company and John R. Miller, an old friend from Oklahoma boom days who became the new town's first mayor. The company proceeded to lay out the town and opened the sale of lots on March 8, 1926. By the end of that first day, it had grossed between $60,000 and $100,000, and after six months Borger sold out completely, for more than a million dollars. He established a lumberyard in the town named for him and opened its first bank. Often he took out full-page ads in area papers promoting settlement in Borger and other oil-rich sites throughout West Texas and eastern New Mexico in which he had bought an interest. He also owned a string of Panhandle wheat elevators and 19,000 acres of farmland in Hansford County. In 1927 Ace and Pete Borger, in association with Albert S. Stinnett , established the towns of Stinnett and Gruver and were influential in making Stinnett the Hutchinson county seat. In 1929 Borger built a spacious two-story family home, the first brick residence in Borger. From the start he had set aside building sites for churches and schools. His wife, Elizabeth, became active in community affairs; her love for beauty and culture was reflected in the antiques with which she decorated their home. Visiting dignitaries were lavishly entertained there. Borger's overt generosity with friends and acquaintances caused hard feelings among certain of the town's populace, however, particularly Arthur Huey, the Hutchinson county treasurer. Huey's dislike for Borger intensified after the Borger State Bank, which Borger had established in June 1930 with himself as president and his son Phillip as vice president, failed, causing a minor panic among local businessmen and small depositors. The elder Borger was later convicted of receiving deposits in the insolvent bank and assessed a two-year prison term, a judgment that he appealed. Meanwhile, Huey was jailed for embezzlement and reportedly asked Borger to help bail him out. When Borger refused, Huey made threats against his life. On August 31, 1934, Borger was getting his mail at the city post office when, according to witnesses, Huey walked in with a Colt .45, shouted obscenities, and shot him fiv

Tsha Handbook →

McIlroy, Sherman D.

1919

Sherman D. (Tex) McIlroy, pioneer oilman, was born in Randolph County, Arkansas, in 1871, the third of the eleven children of William and Mary C. McIlroy. In 1886, when he was fifteen, the family moved to Hood County, Texas, and settled on a farm near Tolar, ten miles west of Granbury. There he remained until 1889, when he left for Fresno, California. By 1897 McIlroy had followed the lure of the gold rush to the Klondike and gone to Dawson City, Yukon Territory, where he spent several exciting years. In 1900 he married Katharyn Byrd, a native of San Antonio, at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and took her back to Dawson City. They had two daughters, the elder said to be the first White child born in the Yukon. Later the McIlroys moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they remained in the gold fields until 1914. McIlroy, who acquired his nickname in Alaska, then brought his family back to Texas. They settled in Amarillo, where McIlroy joined his brother, White W. McIlroy, in the meat and grocery business. In December 1918 excitement over the Masterson oil discovery well swept the Panhandle , and early in 1919 the McIlroy brothers formed the Dixon Creek Oil Company as a joint-stock firm and set out to take advantage of the prospects, despite their total lack of experience in the oil business. After securing some prospective leases on the Smith Ranch in southern Hutchinson County, they drilled their first well, Smith-Capers No. 1, which came in during June 1922 at only thirty barrels a day. Nevertheless, the McIlroys incorporated the company in 1924 to raise funds and continued to drill. Henry A. and Millard C. Nobles were among the principal stockholders. In March 1925 the Dixon Creek, or Smith No. 1, was brought in and produced 400 barrels a day. In December of that year the No. 2 well on the same lease came in at 3,000 barrels a day. Tex McIlroy then decided to try to increase production by deepening Smith No. 1. On January 11, 1926, after being drilled only an additional two feet, the well blew in at 10,000 barrels a day, an unprecedented success that touched off a boom and led to the founding of Borger. After completing Smith No. 1, the Dixon Creek Oil Company brought in a number of successful producers, most of them on the Smith Ranch leases. This made McIlroy one of the dominant independent operators during the boom's early days. To use the large volume of casinghead gas produced from company wells, he also erected one of the Panhandle's first natural gas plants. Later, McIlroy expanded his operations to the West Pampa Field in western Gray County, where he drilled the second producer. There the company eventually brought in eighty-seven producing wells on leases totalling 1,800 acres; at one time the wells were producing more than 20,000 barrels of oil a day. In all, the McIlroy brothers organized three successful independent regional oil companies between 1919 and 1932. During that time, Tex McIlroy handled most of the oil properties. In an era of shady stock deals and questionable business practices, he became known for his honesty, his determination to keep his word, and his charities. The Amarillo Community Chest, the Maverick Club, and several small churches were among the organizations the McIlroys supported. In 1930 the McIlroys merged their Dixon Creek and Cockrell-McIlroy companies as the Dixon Creek Oil and Refining Company. They purchased a small refinery at Kingsmill and operated it mostly on company production. In 1932 the McIlroy brothers sold the company to the King Royalty (later King Oil) Company of Wichita Falls. At that sale, the corporation returned over 700 percent to investors. The McIlroy Oil Company, managed several years longer by White McIlroy, paid dividends of well over 600 percent. Although he was one of the largest stockholders in the King Oil firm, Tex retired from active oil development after the 1932 sale. He bought a large cattle ranch in the vicinity of his old Hood County home and developed it into a

Tsha Handbook →

Fort Smith - Santa Fe Trail

1840

Josiah Gregg (1806-50) blazed the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in 1840 as a shorter route between the U.S. and New Mexico. He crossed this site on March 17, 1840, while returning to Arkansas from a trading expedition to Santa Fe and Chihuahua. In a book, "Commerce of the Prairies", published in 1844, Gregg recommended the new route, which paralleled the Canadian River. Over 2,000 California-bound gold seekers traveled it in 1849. The largest wagon train of that year was accompanied by U.S. Army troops commanded by Captain Randolph B. Marcy (1812-87), who made a survey of the trail for a proposed national wagon road. Marcy's party crossed this site on June 9, 1849. The extensive use of the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in the early 1850s caused it to be considered as a favorable route for a transcontinental railroad. Lt. A. W. Whipple of the Army Corps of Engineer surveyed a possible route in the summer of 1853. By the late 1850s, emigrants were traveling a more southern road through El Paso, which was eventually to become the southern railroad route, and the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail fell into disuse and was finally abandoned. In many places on the Plains, the wagon ruts are still visible in the undisturbed prairie sod. (1974)

Historical Marker →

Gulf Burnett No. 2 (Carson County Oil Discovery Well)

1921

(1 mile southeast) The Panhandle's first oil well, Gulf Burnett No. 2, was struck by the Gulf Production Company on May 2, 1921, on the 6666 Ranch of S. B. Burnett. The prediction of oil in this area by U.S. geologists in 1904 and the discovery of natural gas nearby in 1918 induced Amarillo businessmen to finance Burnett No. 2. Though the first oil was of poor quality, major oil discoveries in the nearby Borger and South Pampa fields in 1926 spurred a regional oil boom and established the Panhandle as one of Texas' richest petroleum areas. Carson County has produced 150 million barrels of oil since 1921. (1993)

Historical Marker → · 3.9 mi away

Things to Do in Borger

nature 16.4 mi away
Alibates Flint Quarries

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument sits on a ridge above the Canadian River north of Amarillo. The rock here is dolomite that got infused with silica…
nature 8.5 mi away
Lake Meredith Canyons

Lake Meredith is a reservoir on the Canadian River north of Amarillo and it cuts a canyon straight through the red Permian rock that lies underneath the Llano…
day trip
Day Trip to Borger 🍔 (FULL EPISODE) S14 E10

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Borger

100 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Borger, TX · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Borger, Texas, a town that exploded onto the map in 1926. Oil was discovered, and suddenly, 45,000 people descended on this dusty patch of Hutchinson County, looking for fortune. It was nicknamed…

  • Borger, Asa Phillip · Tsha Handbook

    Asa Phillip (Ace) Borger, town builder, was born to Phillip and Minnie Ann (West) Borger on April 12, 1888, on the family farm near Carthage, Missouri. His father, a veterinarian, died when Ace was six, and the Borger…

  • McIlroy, Sherman D. · Tsha Handbook

    Sherman D. (Tex) McIlroy, pioneer oilman, was born in Randolph County, Arkansas, in 1871, the third of the eleven children of William and Mary C. McIlroy. In 1886, when he was fifteen, the family moved to Hood County,…

  • Meredith, Alson A. · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Lake Meredith, and you can thank Alson Meredith for that. He wasn't a politician, but this civic leader was instrumental in getting this vital water project built. Born in Louisiana, he came to Texas…

  • Sterling, William Warren · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, a state known for its lawmen, and right here you might be passing through territory once patrolled by William Warren Sterling. Born near Belton in 1891, Sterling's career took him from…

  • Isom, TX · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and right here, you're passing through what used to be Isom, the oldest community that now makes up the city of Borger. It started in 1898 as Granada, a rancher's dugout. But it…

  • Phillips, Jacob Rice · Tsha Handbook

    Jacob Rice (Jake) Phillips, Panhandle oilman, the son of William and Mary (Keefe) Phillips, was born on March 6, 1881, in Deep Valley, Pennsylvania, the eighth in a family of fifteen children. He attended a one-room…

  • Frank Phillips College · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Borger, Texas, where you can see Frank Phillips College. It started in 1948 as Borger City Junior College, but soon got permission from oilman Frank Phillips himself, founder of Phillips Petroleum…

  • When the Texas Rangers Cleaned Up 'Booger Town' · 0.3 mi

    In its first year, Borger was known as 'Booger Town,' and it earned the name. The streets you're driving on now were the scene of open lawlessness, controlled by a crime boss named 'Two-Gun Dick' Herwig. His syndicate…

  • Borger, TX · 0.3 mi

    Borger is home to the world's largest inland petrochemical complexes. Major companies operating in the area include Chevron-Phillips Chemical Company, which produces specialty chemicals, and Solvay, which manufactures…

  • Borden, TX · 0.3 mi

    Borden, Texas. It's a place where the wind whispers stories across the plains, and the vast, panoramic views remind you just how big Texas really is. It's quiet here, a peaceful quiet that comes from knowing your…

  • The Murder of the Man Who Built Borger · 0.3 mi

    The man who founded Borger, Ace Borger, met a violent end right here in the town he created. By 1934 Ace had sold his townsite interests, but he had opened the Borger State Bank in 1930 and run it as president -- and…

Show all 100 nearby places
  • Making Black Gold from Thin Air · 0.3 mi

    Borger’s identity was once defined by a specific industrial process: making carbon black. The STEM behind it is a lesson in chemistry and engineering. The Panhandle Oil Field produced vast quantities of natural gas.…

  • The Carbon Black Capital of the World · 0.3 mi

    For years, Borger's claim to fame was a messy one. Carbon black — the fine, soot-like powder you get by burning natural gas in an oxygen-starved flame, and a vital ingredient for making tires and rubber tough enough to…

  • Gateway to the Battle of Adobe Walls · 0.3 mi

    Just a short drive north of Borger lies the site of one of the most famous battles of the American West: the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. In June 1874, a small trading post and buffalo hunters' camp was attacked by a…

  • Half-Dugout Site, of John and Maggie Weatherly · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Borger, and right around here, John and Maggie Weatherly built a home unlike any you'd see back east. It was 1898, and the Texas High Plains offered no stone or timber. So, they dug into the…

  • Fort Smith - Santa Fe Trail · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Josiah Gregg (1806-50) blazed the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in 1840 as a shorter route between the U.S. and New Mexico. He crossed this site on March 17, 1840, while returning to Arkansas from a trading expedition to…

  • Beale Road · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, the Texas Panhandle's vital link in a historic cross-country road. This route, established by Lieutenant Edward Beale in the mid-1800s, connected Los Angeles all the way to the…

  • Borger - Boomtown Under Martial Law · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Founded in 1926 after oil was discovered in the Panhandle field. Borger became so lawless that the Texas Rangers occupied the town in 1929 and the state placed it under martial law.

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Borger (Borger) · 0.6 mi

    Borger (Borger, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Lincoln Buchanan (3 HR).

  • Girl Scout Little House · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Girl Scout Little House. This community landmark has its origins in Borger's prewar oil boom. In early 1941, Hudson Davis opened a car dealership here, moving his family from Amarillo. Hudson and his…

  • First Methodist Church of Borger · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Borger, a town that exploded in population almost overnight in 1926, thanks to oil. Right here, the First Methodist Church got its start that same year. Reverend Orion W. Carter organized the…

  • Grand Hotel & Grand Hardware Building · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Borger, a town that exploded onto the map in 1926 with the discovery of oil. Just a few years later, in 1927, Greek immigrants Gus and John Yiantsou erected this building. It was one of the first…

  • Ace Borger Home · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Borger, a town that owes its existence to Asa P. "Ace" Borger. He wasn't just a founder; he was a city-builder, establishing communities in Texas and Oklahoma before turning his attention here in…

  • Twentieth Century Club · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Borger, a town that exploded onto the map in 1926 thanks to oil. But amidst the boomtown chaos, some ladies wanted culture and books. In early 1927, Sadie McBride, a newspaper editor, gathered…

  • East Ward Elementary School · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Borger's first independent school system! Back in 1926, even before Borger was officially a city, citizens petitioned for their own schools. They organized Borger ISD, serving 22 square…

  • Gulf Burnett No. 2 (Carson County Oil Discovery Well) · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    (1 mile southeast) The Panhandle's first oil well, Gulf Burnett No. 2, was struck by the Gulf Production Company on May 2, 1921, on the 6666 Ranch of S. B. Burnett. The prediction of oil in this area by U.S. geologists…

  • First Rotary Drilling Rig Used in Texas Panhandle · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, and just ahead is a spot that changed how oil was found here. In October of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1923</say-as>, partners W. T. Willis, J. E. Trigg, and H. D.…

  • Spring Creek School · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Spring Creek School, an early beacon of education in Hutchinson County. It all started in 1900, just a year before the county was even organized. Local ranchers, like W. B. Haile,…

  • Fifteen Miles to the Site of Battle of Adobe Walls · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and just fifteen miles ahead lies the site of a significant clash: the Battle of Adobe Walls. This fight, on November 25th, <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1864</say-as>,…

  • Bents Creek · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of Comanche and Kiowa country, folks. Look around and imagine the Bent brothers, Charles and William, arriving as early as 1835. They weren't just passing through; they set up trading…

  • Plemons Cemetery · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Plemons Cemetery, a quiet resting place that tells a big story of early Hutchinson County. The town of Plemons itself was named for the son of a Texas legislator and even served as the county…

  • Plemons Bridge · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Plemons Bridge, a crucial link built in the booming days of the Texas oil rush. Just two months after the town of Borger was founded in 1926, county officials commissioned this bridge…

  • Antelope Creek Ruins · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, and off to the side are the remains of what archaeologists call 'Texas' first apartment house.'<break time="400ms"/>From about the year <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Sanford, James McEuin · 7.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, and right here, in what is now Hutchinson County, you're passing through land once owned by James McEuin "Mack" Sanford. He wasn't just a rancher; he was a pioneer who arrived…

  • Sanford, TX · 7.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and right here is Sanford. This town owes its very existence to the oil boom of 1927. Founded on land owned by J. M. Sanford, it sprang up when the railroad pushed through,…

  • The Boomtown on Sanford's Ranch · 8.0 mi

    Imagine a stretch of Panhandle ranchland where, almost overnight, a whole town springs up out of an oil boom. That was the birth of Sanford. In nineteen twenty-seven, when the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway…

  • Building a Lake in the Panhandle · 8.0 mi

    The massive lake next to Sanford didn't exist much more than sixty years ago. Creating Lake Meredith was one of the greatest engineering challenges ever undertaken in the Texas Panhandle. The goal was to dam the…

  • The Panhandle's Ancient Industry · 8.0 mi

    The oil and gas industry that built Sanford might seem old, but it is brand new next to the original industry of this river valley. About a dozen miles southwest of here, above the Canadian River near Fritch and the…

  • Sanford, TX · 8.0 mi

    Sanford, Texas, came into existence in 1927 following the discovery of natural gas in the Panhandle Gas Field. This event marked a significant turning point for the area, as it led to the establishment of the town. The…

  • 6666 Dixon Creek Ranch · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Carson County, heading past the legendary 6666 Dixon Creek Ranch. It all started back in 1874 when Billy Dixon, a famous buffalo hunter and scout, built his first dugout home right here on the…

  • Lake Meredith Canyons · 8.5 mi · Things to Do

    Lake Meredith is a reservoir on the Canadian River north of Amarillo and it cuts a canyon straight through the red Permian rock that lies underneath the Llano…

  • Gulf Dial #1 Oil Well · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Gulf Dial #1 Oil Well. The southeastern Texas oil field, Spindletop, erupted on January 10, 1901, launching an oil boom in the state. This prompted many corporations and individuals to begin drilling…

  • The Rainbow Stone of the Plains · 10.3 mi

    Just a short drive from Fritch lies a place that was, for thousands of years, one of the most important industrial sites in North America. It's the Alibates Flint Quarries. For 13,000 years, from Paleo-Indian mammoth…

  • Trial by Fire · 10.3 mi

    For the people of Fritch, fire isn't history - it's a recurring appointment. On Mother's Day, May 11, 2014, a wildfire kicked up right here in town and ran north on a hard Panhandle wind, out toward Lake Meredith. They…

  • The Disappearing Lake · 10.3 mi

    Fritch was an oil-and-gas town first — it grew up around a Rock Island Railroad depot in 1933 — but for decades its second life was the water. Lake Meredith, impounded behind Sanford Dam in 1965, made this a recreation…

  • Taming a Salty River · 10.3 mi

    The lake beside Fritch, Lake Meredith, is an engineering marvel designed to solve a huge problem: a lack of water in the Texas Panhandle. In the 1960s, engineers built the Sanford Dam to block the Canadian River,…

  • Fritch, TX · 10.3 mi

    Fritch has faced significant challenges, including a mile-wide, multi-vortex F4 tornado on June 27, 1992, which resulted in major damage to the city and seven injuries, but fortunately, no loss of life. Another notable…

  • Fritch, TX · 11.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fritch, a town that owes its existence to a railroad executive. In 1924, H.C. Fritch, a vice president for the Rock Island Railroad, helped arrange the purchase of land for a new line. The…

  • Fritch, TX · 11.4 mi

    Fritch, Texas, has faced its share of challenges, with two significant events shaping its history. On June 27, 1992, a mile-wide, multi-vortex F4 tornado struck the area, causing major damage to the city and injuring…

  • Stinnett, Albert Sidney · 11.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and right here is the town of Stinnett, named for a man who sure knew how to build a future. Albert Sidney Stinnett, a developer and booster, helped plat this townsite in 1926…

  • Signal Hill, TX · 11.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, not far from Stinnett, and right here is where Signal Hill used to be. Founded in 1926, this oil boom camp was a wild place. Think beer emporiums, gambling dens, and speakeasies…

  • Stinnett, TX · 11.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Stinnett, a town born from a railroad and a land sale boom. Back in the summer of 1926, promoters sold $400,000 worth of town lots in just four months with "Dollar Day" picnics! Within months, the…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: West Texas (Stinnett) · 11.6 mi

    West Texas (Stinnett, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Cash Fulton (3 HR); Landen McLaughlin (2 HR).

  • Hutchinson County Courthouse · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Stinnett, and right here is the Hutchinson County Courthouse, a building that rose during a boom time. Back in 1927, oil was being discovered all around, and this Spanish Renaissance Revival…

  • "Birthplace of Hutchinson County" Isaac McCormack Cottage · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Stinnett, and right here is the Isaac McCormack Cottage, the birthplace of Hutchinson County government. Imagine hauling building materials across the Canadian River in 1899, with no bridge in…

  • Adobe Walls, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Adobe Walls was the name given several trading posts and later a ranching community located seventeen miles northeast of Stinnett and just north of the Canadian River in what is now northeastern Hutchinson County. The…

  • Adobe Walls, Second Battle of · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, near where the Second Battle of Adobe Walls took place on June 27, 1874. A massive force of about 700 Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors, led by Quanah Parker and the…

  • Big Die-Up · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Panhandle right now, and you might be passing over the site of one of the most tragic events in Texas ranching history: the Big Die-Up. In the harsh winter of 1885, ranchers had built miles of…

  • Dixon, William · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, a land shaped by buffalo hunters and fierce battles. Right here, near the Canadian River, stood the legendary Adobe Walls. In 1874, this rough outpost was the scene of a…

  • Hutchinson County · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, right where history was made in the dust of the frontier. This area was the site of the famous Adobe Walls, a trading post that became the flashpoint for conflict. In 1864,…

  • Quarter Circle T Ranch · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and right here is where Texas ranching history took root in the Panhandle. Back in 1876, Thomas Sherman Bugbee established the Quarter Circle T Ranch. When a blizzard scattered…

  • Adobe Walls, First Battle of · 12.5 mi

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, near where history was made in the First Battle of Adobe Walls. On November 25, 1864, Colonel Kit Carson led his troops and scouts against Comanche and Kiowa encampments. He…

  • Abert, James William · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, a place explorer James William Abert mapped way back in 1845. While on an expedition following the Canadian River, Abert’s party passed through this region. He noted landmarks…

  • Adobe Walls Trail · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, and right here, you're near the path of the Adobe Walls Trail. In March of 1874, Dodge City merchants saw opportunity in the booming buffalo hide trade. They poured over…

  • Coburn, James M. · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the wild frontier of Hutchinson County, Texas, the heart of the massive Turkey Track Ranch. In 1882, Scottish banker James M. Coburn organized a syndicate to buy this land, aiming to…

  • Dixon, Olive King · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and right here, Olive King Dixon was the only woman in this vast area. Born in Virginia in 1873, she came to the Texas Panhandle to teach. She met and married the legendary…

  • Quivira · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, on the trail of a legend. Back in 1540, a Pawnee captive named El Turco spun tales for Coronado's men about Quivira, a province overflowing with gold and silver, somewhere out on the…

  • Turkey Track Ranch · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, possibly near Hutchinson County, where one of the biggest cattle empires in Texas history once roamed. It started in 1878 with Richard McNalty and his 'Turkey Track' brand.…

  • Whittenburg, James Andrew · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, and right here is the land that James Andrew Whittenburg made his own. This cattleman started out at just twelve years old, running away from Missouri to join his brothers in…

  • Phillips, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Phillips is three miles northeast of Borger in south central Hutchinson County. Early in 1926, after oil was discovered in Hutchinson County, the pioneer rancher James A. Whittenburg sought to cash in on the coming boom…

  • Plemons, TX · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Plemons had its beginning in 1898 when James A. Whittenburg , an area rancher, built his dugout in a hill overlooking a bend in the Canadian River in central Hutchinson County. The site was named for Barney Plemons, the…

  • Lake Meredith · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, near the Canadian River, where you'll find Lake Meredith. This massive reservoir was built to supply water to eleven West Texas cities. The project was the brainchild of A. A.…

  • Scissors Ranch · 12.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hutchinson County, right near the historic Adobe Walls site. Back in 1878, William E. Anderson established the Scissors Ranch here. He named it for its unique cattle brand, shaped like a pair of…

  • The Night They Stole the Courthouse · 12.6 mi

    The Hutchinson County Courthouse in the center of Stinnett wasn't built without a fight. In 1926, Stinnett was brand new, but the county seat was in the old ranching town of Plemons. Stinnett's founders called an…

  • Taming the Panhandle Gas · 12.6 mi

    When drillers first struck oil here in the 1920s, it came with a powerful, dangerous partner: natural gas. There was so much of it, they had no way to contain or transport it. So, they just burned it off. For years, the…

  • Stinnett, TX · 12.6 mi

    Stinnett was founded in 1926 by A.P. Borger, known as the founder of Borger, and his brother Lester Andrew Borger. The city replaced Plemons as the Hutchinson County seat in September 1926, marking a significant shift…

  • Skellytown, TX · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Skellytown, a place born from oil! Back in 1926, the Skelly Oil Company found rich fields here. Rancher Henry Schafer platted this townsite, naming it after the company's founder. Initially, it…

  • When the Sky Rained Soot · 14.4 mi

    Imagine a time when everything here was covered in a fine layer of black dust. For decades, the area around Skellytown was a hub for carbon black production. These industrial plants burned immense amounts of natural gas…

  • The Chemistry of a Stronger Tire · 14.4 mi

    The carbon black plants that once operated near Skellytown were basically massive chemical reactors. Their purpose was to turn natural gas into a highly valuable industrial material through a process of incomplete…

  • The Perfectly Planned Town · 14.4 mi

    The neat grid of streets in Skellytown is a corporate plat, not an accident. In 1926 the Skelly Oil Company bought land here from rancher Henry Schafer, on top of the Roxana pool, and laid out a townsite deliberately…

  • Skellytown, TX · 14.4 mi

    In 1926, Skelly Oil Company purchased a 320-acre lease from local rancher Henry Schafer, leading to the birth of Skellytown. Schafer named the town in honor of the company's founder, William Grove Skelly. The town…

  • Gould, Dr. Charles Newton · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Amarillo, home of Dr. Charles Newton Gould, a pioneer in Texas geology and paleontology. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1904</say-as>, Gould identified a unique geological structure…

  • The Only Rock Like It · 16.0 mi

    Just north of Fritch, there's a rock that doesn't occur anywhere else quite the same way -- colorful, hard, glassy flint that people have been quarrying for at least 13,000 years, according to the National Park Service.…

  • First Battle of Adobe Walls · 16.3 mi

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, near where one of the largest Indian battles of the Civil War took place. On November 25th, 1864, about 3,000 Comanche and Kiowa warriors faced off against 372 Federal troops…

  • Alibates Flint Quarries · 16.3 mi · Natural Landmark

    For 13,000 years, people came to these bluffs above the Canadian River to dig rainbow-colored flint out of the dolomite bedrock. The Alibates flint is unmistakable: banded in reds, blues, purples, whites, and maroons,…

  • Alibates Flint Quarries · 16.4 mi · Things to Do

    Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument sits on a ridge above the Canadian River north of Amarillo. The rock here is dolomite that got infused with silica…

  • Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument · 16.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Imagine holding a spear tipped with stone carved right from this very land. For over 13,000 years, people have mined colorful flint here, using it to craft tools and weapons that shaped ancient cultures. This is…

  • Pantex · 17.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Carson County, near Amarillo, and right here is Pantex. It started in 1942 as a World War II ordnance plant, churning out bombs and shells. After the war, it was sold for a dollar to Texas Tech…

  • The Canadian River · 17.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Panhandle, and that waterway you might see is the Canadian River. For over 12,000 years, it's been a lifeline, supporting ancient Indian villages. But you're driving past a route known…

  • Carson, Samuel Price · 17.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Carson County, named for Samuel Price Carson. He was a planter and lawmaker who came to Texas from North Carolina. Carson was already an experienced politician, having served in the…

  • Conway, TX · 17.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Conway, on Interstate Highway 40 in southern Carson County, traces its beginnings to 1892, when the Lone Star School, said to be the first rural school that endured in the Panhandle, was established for the children of…

  • Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail Marcy Route, 1849 · 18.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Amarillo, and to your left and right, you might still see faint ruts of an old, famous trail. This was the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail, a vital overland route connecting Arkansas to New Mexico. It…

  • The Secret City on the Plains · 19.3 mi

    As you drive through this region, you're passing near one of the most significant and secretive engineering sites in the country: the Pantex Plant. Located just down Highway 60 between Panhandle and Amarillo, this…

  • The House That Moved to Town · 19.3 mi

    One of the most important places in Panhandle is the Square House Museum, and the story of its centerpiece is a story of community stubbornness. The Square House went up right here in 1887 — twenty-four feet square,…

  • Panhandle, TX · 19.3 mi

    Panhandle, Texas, breathes agriculture. Drive around, and you’ll see it in the endless fields of wheat shimmering gold under that big Texas sky. Cattle ranches stretch out as far as the eye can see, dotted with…

  • Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, a reminder of the pioneers who settled this land. The White Deer Land Company donated this five-acre plot in 1913, and the first burial was the infant son of the…

  • McBride Ranch House · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the McBride Ranch House, a testament to early Texas ingenuity. Built in 1903, this home wasn't just assembled; it was quarried. Pioneer settler David McBride hauled Alibates dolomite right from the…

  • Polish Settlers of White Deer · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through White Deer, Texas, and you're passing the site of a remarkable journey. In 1854, a hundred Polish families – that’s 800 people – crammed onto one small sailing ship for a nine-week voyage across…

  • White Deer Sacred Heart Catholic Church · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the White Deer Sacred Heart Catholic Church, founded by Polish settlers in 1913. They built this community from scratch, holding services in homes until a priest could visit. The church…

Explore Borger on the Map
All music from Texas → Find another town Vote on city songs

Sign up for the free newsletter

Longer stories, research notes, photos, videos, and where the road goes next. Free, and no iPhone needed.

Subscribe free