Sunday, October 12, 2014

Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Spindletop

I am so far behind on blogging.  Phil’s job in Houston ended and we speedily left for our home in Mission.
After living seven years fulltime in our fifth wheel, there was a lot of “stuff” we needed to move out of the RV into our house. We have also been busy hanging out with friends and attending village activities.
Before we left Houston, I got to go on one last history trip with the folks from Cypress Top.
We went to the Babe Didrikson Zaharias museum and then to Spindletop, where the first oil gusher “came in”.






































Babe Didrikson Zaharias  gained world fame in track and field and All-American status in basketball.  She played organized baseball and softball and was an expert diver, roller-skater, and bowler.  She won two gold medals and one silver medal for track and field in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.









































She died at the age of 45 of colon cancer.
 At the time of her death, she was still a top-ranked female golfer.


There were some lovely flower beds outside of the museum.





























This is a reenactment of the Spindletop gusher that blew oil over 150 feet  in the air at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day before they figured out how to top it off.





















Spindletop was the largest gusher the world had seen, and catapulted Beaumont into an oil-fueled boomtown. Beaumont's population of 10,000 tripled in three months and eventually rose to 50,000.


The Gladys City museum is a recreation of an oil boom town.















































































































































All in all it was a very enjoyable trip.  I’m just sad it was my last one with this group.

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