Midland: The Tall City of Texas

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The “Tall City” of Texas, Midland is famous for three things; oil, high school football, and George W. Bush.

If it wasn’t for my friend living in Midland, I would most likely have never bothered visiting this city. It’s not very large, has nearly no public transportation and the airport only does regional flights in the southwest. It’s 300 miles from any other city and doesn’t even have a train station. These are not negative things, however, I think they preserve the city’s Texas charm.

Downtown Midland, TX (photo: Imagematters1)

Midland gets it’s name from being built as a stopping-point half way between El Paso and Ft. Worth. Their economy is largely based on petroleum; there are oil fields, refineries, laboratories, factories, and anything else involving oil. Pump jacks, those big oil-pumping doohickeys, checker the landscape. When you drive down the highway, you can see pump jacks fenced off in the middle of parking lots! If there’s oil to be pumped, Midland will drill.

Midland certainly lives up to the Texas persona; cowboy hats, pickup trucks, country music and Mexican food are abound in this small city. What really impressed me was how wide the roads are in Midland… I felt like I had a lane-and-a-half everywhere I went. My local friend explained to me that the city built most of these roads after the oil boom, so they wanted to accommodate all the people who drove big trucks.

By no means is Midland simply an oil-town, they have plenty of other options for employment. It’s not a large city, only about 250,000 people. There is a shopping mall, an airport, a drive-in movie theater, a multiplex, Target, Walmart, and basically any other store you would find in the US. What they do lack, however, is any form of a downtown or walking-area… if you don’t have a vehicle, you’re not going to be doing very much.

Go

Getting to Midland is easy for the simple reason that you only have 2 choices; drive or take a regional flight. Midland International Airport (MAF) is serviced by Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and local carriers such as Mesa Air. Southwest has the most flights to and from Midland, but all flights make stops at either Dallas or Albuqurque. The aiport is located a few miles outside of town and has plenty of rental car agencies.

Eat

The “Tall City” isn’t short on places to eat – you have tons of options to stuff your face full of fajitas and chicken fried steak.

Doqa Anitas –

The Barn Door (Odessa, TX) –

Crystal River –

Cattleman’s –

See

Midland is not a big tourist destination, so you don’t get a wide selection of tourist attrations… basically, pick either the George W. Bush childhood home, or the Commemorative Air Force Museum.

W's childhood house

Politics aside, Bush’s house is just a small, normal middle-class house with 60’s furniture… don’t waste your time, unless you really really care enough to bother looking at his 50 year old couch.

WWII fighter plane at the CAF Museum (Photo: Kensaviation.com)

The Commemorative Air Force’s American Airpower Heritage Museum is impressive. Located at the Midland International Airport, the CAF Museum features a full history their program, as well as a dozen or so WWII aircraft and plentiful memorabilia.

"Friday Night Lights" is a movie, turned TV show about high school football in west Texas

If you can swing it, get tickets to see either Midland Lee or Midland High play high school football. The stadiums are bigger than most minor leagure  teams and the fans are just as crazy as any big league game. Remember the movie (and book) Friday Night Lights? They took place in Midland.