The
$3.2 million Gordon Center was opened in 2002.
(Thurber)—Opened in 2002 under the direction of Tarleton State University, the W.K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas has brought a Texas ghost town back to life.
Thurber, about 30 minutes from Tarleton’s campus in Stephenville, was a booming center of industry with a population of roughly 10,000 in 1918, including immigrants from Italy, Poland, Mexico, England and Ireland. By the late 1930s, the town was virtually abandoned.
To chronicle that history, the $3.2 million facility was built in a joint venture between Tarleton, the Tarleton State University Foundation, the Texas Department of Transportation, Erath County, and Mrs. W.K. Gordon, Jr., of Fort Worth.
Thurber
boasted the best-equipped brick plant west of the Mississippi River.
It serves as a research facility and state-of-the art museum located on four acres along Interstate 20 between Fort Worth and Abilene. It is currently the state’s only such institution focusing on the general industrial history of Texas and the Southwest.
T. Lindsay Baker, an accomplished historian and author, serves as director of the center and holds Tarleton’s first endowed chair, funded by a private gift from Mrs. Gordon.
“The Gordon Center presents a wonderful opportunity for members of the general public and for scholars to learn more about the industrial heritage of Thurber and the state of Texas,” Baker said. “The focus of our permanent exhibits is the development of the coal, brick and petroleum industries in the Thurber area. Our special collections library and research area permit detailed examinations of life in Thurber and in other areas of industrial development in Texas and the Southwest.”
Thurber
was once the state’s largest coal mining community.
The 10,000-square-foot museum takes visitors through the unique history of Thurber, which was set in motion in 1886, when coal mining began at the site. The Texas and Pacific Coal Company purchased the land in 1888, and soon Thurber was the largest coal mining community in Texas, producing nearly $11 million in coal by 1900. At its peak, Thurber was mining nearly 3,000 tons of bituminous coal for steam locomotives per day.
After the Texas and Pacific Company purchased the Thurber area, representatives appointed a civil engineer from Virginia named William Knox Gordon, for whom the museum is named, as manager.
After the discovery that the area’s abundant shale hills were ideal for producing brick, the Green & Hunter Brick Company was opened in 1897. It soon became the best-equipped brick plant west of the Mississippi River, producing bricks used across the country, including Congress Avenue in Austin and the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was formally acquired by the Texas and Pacific Coal Company in 1901.
Prosperity continued into the 1900s. Thurber claimed to be the largest city between Fort Worth and El Paso and was one of the first totally electrified cities in the United States, with approximately 1,000 homes, several churches, stores, and even an opera house.
The
museum is home to many artifacts from days gone by.
In 1917, in what would become a fatal blow for the town, the McCleskey No.1 oil well was discovered in nearby Ranger. The well, which produced almost four million barrels of petroleum at its peak, ushered in the West Texas oil boom.
As railroads replaced coal with oil for their steam locomotives, the market declined for the bituminous coal mined in Thurber. Increased petroleum production, in turn, also led to expanded use of oil-based artificial asphalt as a paving material, rather than brick. The company changed its name to Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company and by 1933, had moved its national headquarters to Fort Worth.
The last shaft in the Thurber coal mines was closed in 1927, followed by the brick plant in 1931. Houses and commercial structures were sold and moved, and the brick plant and its smokestacks were demolished. Today a lone smokestack that once belonged to the electric plant stands alongside I-20 next to what is now the Smokestack Restaurant, located in Thurber’s old mercantile store.
Between fire destruction and relocations, area businesses were closed permanently, remaining Thurber schools were shut down and students began attending classes in nearby Strawn. Everyday life, as it was once known in Thurber, disappeared completely by 1937.
“It takes some imagination to picture the thriving town that once occupied this spot,” Baker said. “However, we hope that through our educational outreach programs, public events, and special exhibits, visitors to the center will leave with a better understanding of the role of Thurber in Texas history.”
Today, poignant historical photographs, lifelike figures and the sights and sounds of life in the turn-of-the-century town, including an aromatic Italian bread oven and a brief documentary about life in Thurber, bring the “ghost” town’s history to the modern day audience.
The W.K.
Gordon Center is located at Exit 367 on I-20, and is open from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. 