Dealing With A Boomtown Hangover

As I’ve mentioned before, I was born in Kilgore, Texas. 

Tucked away in the forests and thickets of East Texas, it looks like any number of former boomtowns slowly seeping back into the alluvial soil that once gave it life. From dust to dust and whatnot. 

With a population hovering around 13,000, it’s very rare to hear it mentioned in the course of everyday conversation. So when Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned Kilgore in an interview the other day, it filled me with no small amount of hometown pride. 

The reason Abbott mentioned Kilgore, and indeed about the only reason for anyone to mention it, is that it was the epicenter of the oil boom in the 1930s. 

The governor mentioned it as an example of how he’s regulating the data center boom, and so I couldn’t resist a little trip down memory lane.