Borger Turns 100 Next Monday

Late October is when Texas starts counting. Points in a district race with three Fridays left. Pecans by the pound. The first deer for a kid on youth weekend. And up in the Panhandle, a town that wasn't built to last is counting to 100.

Borger, up in Hutchinson County, started as an oil boomtown, and boomtowns don't usually see 100. Next Monday at noon, Borger celebrates its 100th anyway.

The ceremony is Oct. 26 at Crawford Park on Main Street. There will be a centennial plaque, a time capsule from 1976 dug up and opened, a new one buried in its place, and lunch in the park. The city is marking 100 years since Borger was incorporated, and its tag for the year is "100 years of grit."

The grit came first. In March 1926, after oil was found nearby, a town promoter named A. P. "Ace" Borger and his partner, attorney John R. Miller, bought a 240-acre townsite near the Canadian River. Within 90 days, more than 45,000 people had come for the oil. By October the town had a charter, a mayor (Miller), a railroad spur, a post office and a school district. Before anybody drilled a water well, drinking water came in by tank wagon. Thomas Hart Benton came through and painted Main Street; the canvas is called Boom Town.

The rest of the story, everybody in the Panhandle already knows. They called it Booger Town. Gov. Dan Moody sent Texas Rangers under Frank Hamer and Tom Hickman in the spring of 1927. On Sept. 18, 1929, District Attorney John A. Holmes was murdered by an unknown assassin, and Moody put the town under martial law for a month. Ace Borger himself was shot to death in 1934.

People called it "Borger during the day and Boogertown at night," Ashley Keeney, director of the Hutchinson County Historical Museum, told KVII in January. "You didn't want to go outside when the sun went down."

The boom ended. Borger didn't. The Depression took the oil prices down, but the plants stayed: carbon black, then synthetic rubber during World War II, then petrochemicals. By the 1960s Borger was one of the biggest oil, carbon black and petrochemical centers in the state, and in 1969 it was designated an All-American City. The population peaked at 20,911 in 1960 and stood at 12,551 in the 2020 count. The Borger News-Herald has been printing since 1926, same as the town.

"This is our centennial year, so that means our Boomtown survived," Nicole Chavez, the city's civic convention and Main Street coordinator, told KVII this month. "We have made it 100 years, which is a very rare thing for the city of Borger."

Mayor Karen Felker put it the same way: "We did have such a history that we came out of, and we survived that history, and we're celebrating that history."

If you're anywhere near Hutchinson County next Monday, the lunch is open to the public, old families and new ones alike. A hundred years is a long time for a town that started as a rush. It's worth showing up for.

Chaos coordinator, intermediate critical care unit

Tell folks what you do and how long you've been doing it.

I'm the chaos coordinator for an intermediate critical care unit and I've been here for 11 years. 26 years, off and on, in healthcare. I'm the unofficial boss, the mother hen to all the baby nurses, Ms. Fix It, and the one who fixes the server.

What's the part of your work nobody understands until they've done it?

Holding a stranger's hand while they die. We have a rule that no one dies alone, and sometimes patients do not have family or friends that can be there with them. So I will go in, hold their hand, talk to them, and pray over them as they pass from this life. Sometimes it's peaceful and sometimes it's not, but it always gives me perspective on what to be grateful for in my life.

What's the best thing about living in Lubbock that somebody from Dallas would never guess?

Lubbock may be flat and windy, but it only takes about 15 minutes to get anywhere in this town.

Where do you eat when it's your pick, and what do you order?

Wrecked Burgers on Broadway, and I get the Wrecked Fries. Then scoot across the street to Chimy's for a margarita!

Friday night in the fall — where are you?

If I'm being honest, I'm at home. Occasionally I'll go to Blue Light for some live music.

Somebody's thinking about getting into your line of work. What do you tell them?

If you want to get into healthcare, you better be in it to serve others. Most of us don't work here for the money or praise. We do it because we genuinely like helping people. You need a compassionate heart for sure.

Know somebody who belongs in this chair? Hit reply with their name, your town, and one line on why.

In September, MaxPreps ranked the best small-town football teams in America: schools under 1,000 students, towns under 10,000 people. No. 1 was Carthage, over in Panola County. No. 15 was Gilmer, county seat of Upshur County. They play in the same district, and they meet in Gilmer on Oct. 30.

Carthage needs no introduction around here. Coach Scott Surratt's Bulldogs have won 11 state titles in the past 18 years, including back-to-back in 2024 and 2025, and Surratt holds the Texas record for state championships. Since 2017 they're 131-4. They finished non-district play 4-0 with a 23-7 night at West Orange-Stark, then opened district by beating Pittsburg 62-35. Thursday night at Spring Hill in Longview, it was Carthage 63, Spring Hill 13.

Gilmer played Friday night of Yamboree week, the 89th one, the festival that's been honoring Upshur County's sweet potato since 1935, with the Queen's Parade on Saturday. The Buckeyes went 4-1 before district, the only loss a 52-40 shootout at Pine Tree in the opener, and they scored 40 or more in all five non-district games. Friday they hosted Pittsburg from Camp County, and Pittsburg won it on the road, 58-56. That's Gilmer's first district loss, after beating Pleasant Grove 33-27 the week before, and it makes Oct. 30 matter even more.

The game to watch: Carthage at Gilmer, Friday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m. Two of the top 15 small-town teams in the country, one district, one Friday night in Gilmer.

Elsewhere Friday:

If your team played Friday and we didn't list it, reply with the score and your town. We read every one.

At 3211 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in South Longview, you can eat barbecue in the same room it's been served in since 1952, at some of the same tables and chairs that were there on the first day.

Audrey White's parents opened it as White's Drive-In. The building was a church before it was moved to the lot. Next door was the family's 11-room motel, the only motel in Longview for African Americans during segregation; Ray Charles stayed there. On Sept. 25 the place got a Texas Historical Commission "Undertold Stories" marker, the first of its kind in Gregg County. The News-Journal has reported it may be the second-oldest Black-owned barbecue restaurant in Texas.

Inside it looks the way it always has: a vintage jukebox against a lime-green wall and 1950s seats around the tables. Audrey runs the counter. Her husband, Eddie, runs the pit, the same well-seasoned smoker her father used. The restaurant was closed most of the last year while Eddie recovered from a kidney transplant; she told the News-Journal in September that he's back in good health.

What to order: brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage, with beans and potato salad. Then whatever dessert Audrey felt like making that day; strawberry shortcake has been one of them.

When to go: Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., or until the food runs out. Don't wait on that second part.

If somebody forwarded you this, the signup is at LoneStarNation.com. It's free, it comes once a week, and that's it.

This week's ask: Youth weekend is Oct. 30–Nov. 1. If there's a hunter 16 or under in your family, send us one photo from the stand, the truck, or the cleaning table, with their first name and your town. Deer or no deer. The best ones run here on Monday, Nov. 2.

Replies go to [email protected].

See you next Monday.

— LoneStarNation