The story
From frontier outpost to oil-boom prosperity.
The “big spring” itself was a year-round watering hole in an otherwise dry stretch of the Llano Estacado. Comanche bands camped here for generations. By 1849 it had become a U.S. Army stop on the Marcy Trail, and by 1881 the Texas & Pacific Railway made it a town.
The 1928 oil discovery in nearby Howard County turned Big Spring into a regional capital almost overnight. Hotel Settles rose in 1930. The tallest building between Fort Worth and El Paso, it remains a downtown anchor today.
During World War II, the Big Spring Army Airfield trained more than 6,000 bombardiers. The original Hangar 25 still stands and now houses the Air Museum, where visitors can walk through wartime classrooms preserved as they were in 1944.
