Big Spring, Texas Big Spring, Texas The Municipal Auditorium in Big Spring The Municipal Auditorium in Big Spring Big Spring is a town/city in and the governmental center of county of Howard County, Texas, United States, at the crossroads of U.S.
Big Spring was established as the governmental center of county of Howard County in 1882; it is the biggest improve in the county.
The town/city got its name from the single, large spring that issued into a small gorge between the base of Scenic Mountain and a neighboring hill in the southwestern part of the town/city limits.
"To the native or established inhabitants who may wince at the plural in Big Spring, it should be explained that until about 1916, when for some unexplained reason the name dropped the final 's', the official name of the town was indeed Big Springs." There is also a small improve titled Big Springs, Texas, positioned in Rusk County in East Texas.
1.1 Origin of the name "Big Spring" Signal Peak positioned 10 miles (16 km) to the southeast of Big Spring (Robert T.
Big Spring decorative sign The "big spring" in Comanche Trail Park in Big Spring, Texas Big Spring City Hall.
Big Spring Veterans Hospital.
Although the region had long been a prominent watering hole for Native Americans and other prehistoric inhabitants and nomads, including members of the more recently established Jumano, Apache, and Comanche tribes, the first European to view the site now known as Big Spring was probably a member of a Spanish expedition, possibly that of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, although the record of his travels cannot confirm his visit.
Marcy's expedition was the first United States expedition to explore and map the region in 1849. Marcy marked the spring as a campsite on the Overland Trail to California.
Finch purchased 37,000 acres (150 km2) of ranch territory in the region in 1883, and is credited with building Big Spring's first permanent structure, a butcher's shop. The culmination of the Texas and Pacific Railroad led to the beginning in the early 1880s of Abilene, Colorado City, and Big Spring, three barns ing and ranching metros/cities where saloons and gambling dens flourished.
The early discoveries in the region marked the beginning of the petroleum trade in the Permian Basin region of West Texas, and the petroleum trade has continued to be a dominant part of the area's economy.
The petroleum trade in Big Spring reached its peak amid the petroleum boom of the 1950s.
Another primary part of Big Spring's economy and life amid the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s was Webb Air Force Base.
It initially opened amid World War II as the Big Spring Bombardier School.
Following the war, it was converted to a US Air Force training base and was titled for James Webb, a Big Spring native who died in action amid World War II.
Big Spring was also featured in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, which starred Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight and received the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1969.
The opening scenes featuring Voight, then a mostly unknown actor, playing the character Joe Buck were filmed in Big Spring and the neighboring town/city of Stanton.
In 1980, Hollywood returned to Big Spring with the recording of Hangar 18. It was a low-budget sci-fi movie about a space shuttle's collision with an alien spacecraft and the ensuing government cover-up.
Big Spring is the locale for the opening scene of the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk Till Dawn.
The FAI World Hang Gliding Championship was hosted by Big Spring in August 2007.
The area's "big spring", long dry but recently modified to draw water from Comanche Trail Lake, was of primary importance to all life in the encircling area.
In the early 1840s, it was the center of a territorial dispute between Comanche and Pawnee tribes, and has been a primary watering hole for wildlife and prehistoric man in this semiarid area. Early military scouting reports and pioneer accounts describe the water as cold, clear, and dependable; the spring pool was approximately 15 feet (5 m) deep, with the overflow going only a short distance down the draw before it sank beneath the surface.
It is actually positioned to the south, near the top of a small, rugged, unnamed draw running eastwards from the spring, and is itself a tributary to Beal's Creek, the name given to Sulphur Draw as it flows into, through, and past the town/city of Big Spring.
Long used by county-wide inhabitants, both permanent and nomadic, with a large number of locally collected artifacts testifying to its heavy occupation, the spring sat astride the a several chapters of the later-developed Comanche War Trail as they converged on this meaningful water hole from beyond Texas, coming south athwart the Northern Plains and the Llano Estacado.
From the Big Spring, the war trail continued south via three chapters, one to the southeast through the part of the Concho country; one going almost due south, heading for Castle Gap and Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River; and one heading west to Willow Springs in the sand nation southwest of present Midland, before turning south down the Pecos, all headed ultimately for Mexico.
As caucasians began to settle the territories, the spring continued to serve as a primary watering place on the southern route of the Gold Rush Trail of the early 1850s and continued in use well beyond that time, as the cross-continental trail turned into a primary road for later pioneers coming into the area.
The spring was sourced from a mostly small aquifer situated on the northern end of the Edwards Plateau and the southern end of the High Plains, being, structurally, a collecting sink of lower Cretaceous (Fredericksburg) limestones and sands. The spring aquifer held a large quantity of water due to the great number of fractures, solution channels, and interstices in the rocks and underlying sands, although the aeral extent of the Big Spring sink is estimated to be only 1 mile (2 km) in diameter, with the chief area only 3,000 feet (914 m) wide and almost circular, with some ellipticity trending towards the west.
The Cretaceous beds subsided about 280 feet (85 m) below their normal position, centered on the SE quarter of Section 12, Block 33 T1 - S; T&P RR Co survey, and the entire stratum appears to be preserved inside the sink, the surface topography roughly following the subsurface subsidence. This writing identifies the sink as one of a number of similar subsurface geologic features in the encircling area, differing from the Big Spring sink only in the fact that the surface topography above the others, while showing some decline, does not dip low enough to intersect the top of the water tables; hence, no springs could form from the other aquifers.
The water was heavily mined by wells assembled by both the barns and the early town of Big Spring, greatly in excess of its modest recharge rate, until the water table first dropped below the level of the spring outlet, and, finally, was completely depleted by the mid-1920s.
The town/city now artificially fills the spring from its current origin of water as a means of allowing inhabitants and visitors to maintain some idea of how it appeared in times past.
Big Spring is the site of a several major hang gliding championship tournaments, including the U.S.
The Big Spring Heritage Museum contains pioneer and Indian artifacts, art exhibits, and the biggest compilation known of Texas Longhorn steer horns.
The picnic pavilion at Big Spring State Park, assembled by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
Big Spring Municipal Auditorium Big Spring Vietnam Memorial Big Spring State Park Heritage Museum of Big Spring Big Spring Independent School District Big Spring Herald The Texas Department of Criminal Justice operates the Big Spring District Parole Office in the city. The hospital has reduced its number of beds over the years, but remains one of the biggest employers in Big Spring.
The United States Postal Service operates the Big Spring Post Office. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operates the Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring in Big Spring. The close-by Big Spring Correctional Center is privately directed (GEO Group) on behalf of the BOP. The Colorado River Municipal Water District operates a reclaimed water treatment plant in Big Spring, the first of its kind in Texas, the product of which is then bringed to the potable water treatment plants of Big Spring, Stanton, Midland, and Odessa. Moore Development for Big Spring Big Spring Chamber of Commerce Big Spring Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Big Spring Concerned Citizen's Council Larry Arnhart, a writer and scholar, graduated from Big Spring High School in 1967.
Big Springs , Tex.: Heritage Museum.
Big Spring from the Handbook of Texas Online "Same Big Spring Wind Farm, New Owners" (16 January 2003).
Springs of Texas.
Geology and ground-water resources of the Big Spring area, Texas.
Texas Transportation Commission, Texas State Travel Guide, 2007, p.
"FCI Big Spring, Contact Information." "CI Big Spring Contact Information." Big Spring, Texas.
City of Big Spring.
City of Big Spring homepage
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