Midland, county seat of Midland County, Texas is a city of 100 thousand situated half way between Dallas and El Paso on U S 20 in the southern part of the Llano Estacado, which has an interesting history. With Odessa, our sister city twenty miles to the west, we share an international airport which is the home of the Commemorative Air Force [an association of owners of World War II aircraft]. Midland has served as the focal point for a diverse economy of cattle ranchers, cotton growers and oil producers of the Permian Basin for a century, and its population is comprised of conservative, hard working friendly people. Come visit us. We'll show you an interesting Petroleum Museum which contains, among other things, an assortment of Formula-One racers developed by some of our local racers and raced internationally. Or, we'll take you to Odessa's Shakespearean theatre-in-the-round for a play and return you to Midland to view places where President Bush grew up. If you like hot air ballooning, you will be among many who do.
We have more oil than water. Ever seen a tank farm? One which can store two million barrels of oil? We have one which ships oil via pipeline to the Gulf Coast refiners daily. Water is a different matter for us. We have to pipe water from the Colorado river a hundred miles to the east. Since we are in the heart of the fishing country, we have a large boat dealer here. After all, the gulf is only 400 miles south and good trout streams are less than that distance north. And, every five or ten years you may see boats cruising up and down Wadley St. That's when we get enough rain to make our average rainfall fourteen inches per year.
5 September 2005