Original Marker – See photo #1
Projection of Staked Plains. Winkler County's highest point.
Lookout and landmark for red men and whites. Indians found here fuel, sheltering caves and water.
Left artifacts and 138 mortar . . . — — Map (db m21692) HM
(front)
Native North Carolina. Start of Civil War, organized and took company 150 men to join Confederate army in Virginia. Unit made part 4th Texas Infantry of famed Hood's Brigade. Rose to command regiment as Lt. Colonel. Fought with . . . — — Map (db m73330) HM
County Seat of Winkler County. Organized in 1910. Incorporated in 1938. Named for Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, who had visited a local ranch. One of the top oil and gas producing counties in state. Ranch center. Gateway to . . . — — Map (db m61319) HM
Last wooden oil derrick in U.S. to retire from daily use. Drilled Moorhead No. 1 well on Chapman-McAlvane lease, Loving County. Has bull wheels and rig irons of type not made since 1920s. However, in its day it made deep drilling possible.
Pump . . . — — Map (db m61320) HM
First post office in Winkler (then part of Tom Green) County opened near here (1908) on John Howe ranch. Mail came in twice weekly to serve 300 persons.
Duval townsite, promoted all over the United States by the Pueblo Investment Co., opened . . . — — Map (db m61318) HM
50 years of camp meetings, circuit riders, singings and Sunday Schools at ranches or schoolhouses filled settlers' religious needs. In 1928, when this church was organized, its sanctuary was 1910 courthouse, bought for a dollar. Present . . . — — Map (db m61321) HM
Mapped by U.S. Government, 1849, for gold seekers and settlers. Known earlier to Indians and many Spanish explorers. A 100-mi. belt of sand in Winkler and 4 other Texas counties and in New Mexico. Width varies from 3 to 20 miles; outer dunes are . . . — — Map (db m61324) HM
Located 6.6 miles east of this site in the Sand Hills, Willow Springs was known to Comanche Indians and to West Texas pioneers as an important source of water. It was frequently used by gold seekers on their way to California after the 1849 gold . . . — — Map (db m73313) HM
Built in 1929-30 in response to the need for a larger courthouse after the discovery of oil in the county in 1926, this replaced a 1910 structure on the same site. Designed by architect David Castle, the four-story Classical Revival/Beaux Arts . . . — — Map (db m201829) HM
“Ghost” burial plot with 26 unmarked graves of unidentified, unfortunates, or men traveling under aliases during 1926–29 oil boom violence.
All vestiges of graves lost in winds, shifting sands. Plot dedicated to memory of . . . — — Map (db m61284) HM
Roy Kelton Orbison was one of America's most famed rock and roll musicians. Born in Vernon (Wilbarger Co.), Orbison and family moved often and by 1946 they had settled in Wink. The Orbisons lived at 102 Langley Way (now 105 North Roy Orbison Drive). . . . — — Map (db m61285) HM
On land ruled up to 1874 by Comanche Indians, later part of famed "W" cattle ranch. Town "born" in 1926 when Roy Westbrook's Permian Basin oil discovery 1.5 miles to the north brought in 10,000 to 20,000 people, initiated area's conversion to . . . — — Map (db m61317) HM
The Wink School organized in April 1928, at which time an independent district formed and the first board of trustees was elected. The Wink Junior High and High School, built in 1929, is a two-story building with running bond brick cladding and . . . — — Map (db m110139) HM
First of 612 Wells in Hendrick Field, a very prolific, 10,000-acre west Texas oil pool.
This area, called "Wildcatters' graveyard", lay on the 30,000-acre T.G. Hendrick ranch. Drillers Roy A. Westbrook & Associates leased land at 10 cents an . . . — — Map (db m61286) HM