Fort Worth and Denver Railway

Located in North Texas, just 15 miles south of the Oklahoma border, Wichita Falls was shaped by railroads, oil, the military, and the wide-open plains encompassing the city.

The arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway in 1882 helped transform the small settlement into a regional trading center.

Then came oil.

The 1918 Burke-Bennett oil boom, just north of Wichita Falls, brought thousands of people and enormous amounts of money into the area, establishing the city as a commercial center for the surrounding oil fields.