Camp Ford

Historical marker location:

6288 Highway 271, Tyler, Texas

( 4 mi. NE of Tyler, US Hwy 271)

Marker installed: 1936

Camp Ford, stockade prison of federal soldiers during the Civil War.

Texas has been a major oil-producing state for over a century. The first big oil discovery in Texas was the Spindletop field near Beaumont in 1901, which set off a massive oil boom that transformed the state's economy and made Texas one of the wealthiest states in the country.