City of Ranger
City Of Ranger
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<p>Small town with wooden oil derricks</p>
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<p>Postcard of city street labeled East Main Street, Ranger, Texas</p>
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<p>Car stuck in flooded, unpaved road labeled Lost in the Good Roads of Ranger Texas</p>
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<p>City street labeled Main Street, Ranger, Texas</p>
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<p>Entrance to brick building named Roaring Ranger Museum and Chamber of Commerce</p>
Ranger
An 1870s Texas Ranger camp in northeast Eastland County gave the town of Ranger its name. It existed as a farming community until 1917, when an oil well on the McCleskey farm spurred one of the biggest oil booms in the state. Immediate growth and prosperity ensued, and throngs of people rushed to Ranger. The boom was seen as an answer to the oil shortage caused by World War I, and the Texas Highway Commission approved funding for the south loop of SH 1 through multiple locations, including Ranger. By 1924, the existing surface materials of the road were starting to show immense wear and tear from the heavy traffic from the surrounding oil fields. In response to this, funding was obtained to replace the Bankhead Highway’s existing surface with new brick pavers. The Ranger oil boom was fierce but short-lived. The wells were exhausted by the mid-1920s. Stop at the Roaring Ranger Museum to learn more.
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<p>Road paved with bricks</p>
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<p>Brick stamped Thurber Block, Thurber Texas</p>
Commerce Street Brick Roadway Segments
In the 1920s, Ranger’s unpaved streets were no match for the oil boom that had taken over the city. Brick, though expensive, became the paving material of choice, and luckily the nearby town of Thurber had the best equipped brick plant west of the Mississippi. Thurber brick paved hundreds of miles of Texas highways and streets from Ranger to Galveston.
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City of Ranger
400 W. Main St.
254.647.3023
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