Albany, Texas

  This town was named for Albany, Georgia, where one of the organizers of Shackelford County was born.

This is the Shackelford County Courthouse.

This miniature derrick on the courthouse square  commemorates the first producing oil well in West Texas.

Another memorial on the courthouse square commemorates the area's other big moneymaker.

This sign is in the median of US 180/US 283. Notice the courthouse in the background.

This sign on a gas station wall gives distances to 30 cities throughout Texas and New Mexico.

This drill rig sits in a park at the south end of town. The plaque on the left commemorates the nearby Cook Ranch Oil Field. In 1918, William Ivy Cook leased his land to drillers and predicted that he could drink from his hat all the oil that was under his land. In 1926 they struck oil--1,000 barrels a day. That would fill a lot of hats!

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