Upton County Texas History & Genealogy

01/17/2026

Here is a little trivia for your Saturday…

The famous “M” overlooking McCamey wasn’t always located on its current hill. Where was it originally located?



Edit: Answer in the comments ❤️

09/27/2025

M. L. Baker No. 1 – the discovery well that gave McCamey its name 100 years ago today!

By the early 1920s, Upton County was still just a patchwork of quiet ranching communities. The cattle drives of Goodnight and Loving through Castle Gap were long past, the Butterfield stage had been replaced by the Orient Railroad, and folks had settled into a steady rhythm of ranch life under the wide West Texas sky. But change was rumbling beneath their feet.

That change came to the surface on Sunday, September 27, 1925. Fort Worth wildcatter George B McCamey and his partner John Porter Johnston had struck a deal with Marland Oil Company to drill a test well on the Baker ranch in the southwest corner of Upton County. George McCamey had picked the spot himself after geologists suggested the land held promise. With a cable-tool rig set up in August and supply boxcars parked nearby on a railroad siding, the men went to work on drilling what they called the M. L. Baker No. 1 oil well.

On the afternoon of September 27th, George McCamey was making his way back from Best in neighboring Regan county, when he noticed a long line of cars filled with geologists and scouts heading in the other direction. He thought little of it until he got closer and realized the truth: his wildcat well had come in. The Baker No. 1 was flowing—192 barrels a day, eight barrels an hour when put on pump. Those scouts were scrambling to reach the closest telephone to advertise that oil had been found in Upton County.

The timing was almost too perfect to believe. That very same day, back in Fort Worth, George McCamey’s wife gave birth to their son Robert. George heard the good news over the telephone in San Angelo—he had struck oil and fatherhood all within a matter of hours.

Within a week, Republic Production Company purchased the well and surrounding acreage for half a million dollars, a fortune for two independent drillers who “just wanted to drill a well.” And almost overnight, the quiet ranch country changed. Oil derricks rose where windmills once stood, ranch roads turned into bustling highways, and a rough-and-tumble boomtown sprang up. When the oil boom brought workers and supplies rushing into the scrubland, a lone boxcar sat on the railway siding with the name “McCamey” stenciled across its side. It became the landmark everyone looked for, the place where freight wagons stopped and mail sacks were dropped. Before long, folks stopped saying they were headed out to the oil camp and simply said they were going to “McCamey” and that boxcar’s painted name gave the town its own.

By 1926, more than 10,000 people had poured into the town of McCamey. In 1931, Boy Scout Troop 31 erected a monument at the site, where it still stands today, 2.3 miles north of McCamey.

It’s remarkable to think that a century later, so many of us live and work in the community of McCamey because of that single stroke of fortune—the day George B McCamey and John Porter Johnston hit black gold in the West Texas desert.

09/24/2025

Flat Rock, Upton County, Texas

Flat Rock is one of those quiet places in Upton County that you might pass without ever realizing the stories hidden in the rugged prairie. Located along the railroad, it was named for the old Flat Rock Ranch and tied to the Flat Rock Oil Field from the 1920’s. This spot carries the imprint of both ranching and oil — the two forces that shaped much of West Texas. Out here, the land rolls with mesquite and limestone outcrops, and you can almost picture the early ranchers riding fence lines long before the oil rigs arrived. Flat Rock was never a bustling town, but it is part of the fabric of Upton County — a reminder of how even the smallest places can hold the spirit of the frontier.

📷 Jack Plumlee circa 1930 standing in front of the Flat Rock Railroad sign

📷 Map showing Flat Rock location

07/09/2025

https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/community/historic-marker-preserves-legacy-of-mccameys-black-community/513-17d5110f-2558-477e-ab6b-ad7b4234622f?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_NewsWest_9&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLavMZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHv8KzmwJzmSS972pHxv768wpC2W4D_ut3PtxOJnziV0TNeTTCPdb6LM00qAJ_aem_UPKtJcnql0EEKDbIxAr8Pw

A McCamey, Texas cemetery has received a historical marker that families say is a way to honor the faith, resilience and unity that defined their neighborhood.

01/28/2025

01/23/2025

First State Bank Robbery 1/11/1928 - Rankin, Texas

01/10/2025

“Attached are a few photos from the McCamey field in 1927. My grandfather, Donald George Dunbar Sr., and his partner Robert Imbt lived in San Angelo from 1926 to 1932. The railroad ran west and ended in McCamey. They got off there, and Imbt saw King Mountain and Castle Gap and said they would drill there. They were working for Pure Oil Company and would buy leases for Pure and, where possible, mineral interest for the president of Pure and for themselves. With the Depression, Pure told Dunbar to lay off Imbt and close the office and move back to Corsicana. Instead, Dunbar resigned, and he and Imbt formed a partnership that lasted until Dunbar's death in 1954.”

-David Dunbar, Dunbar Oil & Gas

Thanks David. These early photos of the McCamey field are awesome!

📷: Courtesy of David Dunbar, Dunbar Oil & Gas

11/09/2024

On this day in 1911, the Kansas City Mexico and Orient Railway tracks reached Rankin.

09/23/2024

07/03/2024

97 years ago…

Check out the San Angelo Daily Standard newspaper advertising the grand opening of the Yates Hotel in Rankin on 7/1/1927

06/22/2024

McCamey is a 99-year-old town with a rich history including historical buildings, original homes from the 1930s and a title of the Wind Energy Capital of Texas.

06/01/2024

The Bakersfield Valley Tornado
6/1/1990

The supercell formed just outside of Girvin , TX when a tornado touched down at 5:20pm about 10 miles south of McCamey. The tornado moved slowly eastward and was an F0 for the first 2-3 miles. It intensified rapidly to an F3 as it approached Bakersfield Valley and crossed Hwy 1901. As the tornado reached Hwy 305 it turned deadly when it encountered a pickup truck and dump truck traveling north bound. Continuing south southeast towards Hwy 190 the tornado reached it’s maximum width of 1.3 miles with F4 winds. It lifted just 5 miles southwest of Iraan at 6:30pm leaving damages estimated to be upwards of $50 million.

The tornado was on the ground for 70 minutes and went 22 miles reaching a width of 1.3 miles.
5:20 to 6:30

Fatalities: Pat Dinger, 43 of Del Rio and Robert Musick, 70 of Canyon Lake

Here are 2 eyewitness accounts taken from the local newspaper

Shawn Stewart: Stewart, a pumper for Marathon in the Yates field, received a call over his truck radio at about 6 PM from Doug McAnally, production foreman, warning about high winds and a possible tornado. At the time, Stewart was out on a dirt road next to a well and figured his best course was to drive a quarter mile to a paved road that would lead him back towards Iraan. By the time he got to the road, the sky was pitch black all around him, and the wind was furious. Stewart parked the truck with its back to the wind. However, soon the wind spun the truck around, blew out the driver side window and began to pummel him with gravel. “I got out of the pick up, and the wind blew me down into the pavement,” Stewart says. “It blew me around 50 feet on my backside. I crawled back to where the truck was and got down into the ditch by the road. I could barely see the truck. I lay down there. After about 10 minutes, I grabbed a mesquite bush that was next to me and just hung on through the storm. There was a house with a roof nearby. While I was in the ditch, pieces of roof and other parts of the house blew by me. I didn’t think I would get through it. I saw those pieces of roof, and it looked like the wind would take me. I was just waiting for that to happen. I think I was lucky. Afterward, I saw a lot of Mesquite with the roots up out of the ground.”

Don Copeland: Marathon employee, weathered the storm by clenching the steering wheel and jamming both feet on the brake pedal in his company truck. The wind blew out the driver side and rear windows in his vehicle. Copeland, plant operator at Yates waterflood injection facility had been inside the plant building that afternoon when he received a warning call from McAnaly his supervisor, who told him about an extreme weather threat. As winds began to pound the building, Copeland worried that some adjacent transformers and powerlines might blow into the structure. He decided to drive away from the storm. He drove as far as the nearest blacktop road a quarter mile away and had to stop as he reached its edge because of the wind as it whipped against his truck Copeland pressed down on the brakes as hard as he could with both feet. It made no difference. The truck was blown about 50 feet and landed in the ditch next to the road. Copeland kept his feet on the brakes, although it was the ditch that prevented the truck from moving. The wind blew out the driver side window and then the rear window. By moving his head back, Copeland kept his face out of the path of blowing glass fragments. Later, he felt small chips of glass against the back of his head and shirt, but he stayed locked in his position. In all, it was about a 30 minute nightmare. Fortunately, he suffered no injury. “I never saw the tornado coming; didn’t see it and didn’t see it leave, “Copeland says. “It was just a black wall, a couple of miles wide. I don’t mind telling you I was scared to death. I was praying. Really i’ve never been so scared and for that long. The best thing to do was probably the hardest thing, just sit right there and wait it out. You know, I was just about raised in the cellar. My dad was scared to death of tornadoes, and I never could understand why. Now I do.“

📷: Michael Davis