State tourism magazine's spotlight focused on Kilgore
DERRICK RESTORATION DRAWS ATTENTION
By KATHRYN MARTINEZ news1@kilgorenewsherald.com

The photo above, by freelance photographer Skeeter Hagen, is half of a panoramic photograph that introduces readers of Texas Highways magazine to the history of Kilgore.

When Texas Highways titled a ninepage spread in the June edition 'Gushing About Kilgore,' they were not far off the mark.

It seems local people are still gushing about Kilgore, long after the gushing days of the 1930s oil boom.

Texas Highways introduced Kilgore's skyline on page 52 with a facing-page photographic layout of the World's Richest Acre as seen from the west side of the railroad tracks.

From there the magazine reveals to its readers - including many who will learn of Kilgore's rich heritage for the first time within those pages - the story of the Lou Della Crim no. 1 well and the changes that virtually fell upon Kilgore overnight.

Many businesses are seen throughout the pages of the travel magazine, including Modern Barber Shop, Mary's Makin's and Main Street Barber Shop, but none more than Country Tavern Bar-B-Que, identified as "a family restaurant with honkey-tonk flair," which got another four pages in the same publication.

What inspired Austin-based Texas Highways to venture so far into the piney woods?

"Hard work and determination," Mike Coston, chamber president, said. "The article on Kilgore was 18 months in the making."

According to Coston he and Carol Hinton, director of tourism, have been rubbing elbows all over Texas in an effort to shine a brighter light on The city of stars.

"Finally, the message we have tried to get out for so long, about Kilgore's culture and heritage, is getting out; and not only in Texas, but everywhere Texas Highways circulates, Coston said. "We are seeing all the hard work we put forth paying off in this magazine."

Coston said the publicity the magazine has given Kilgore far exceeds what the chamber could have paid for in advertising expenses.

"This magazine is Kilgore through and through. No matter where you start - front or back - you are going to come across Kilgore pretty quick," Coston said. "Not only do readers get to see what a pretty town we live in, but they see our history and heritage through the eyes of some of Kilgore's characters."

The "characters" to which Coston refers include Sonny Spradlin and Helen "Pudge" Griffin, who both have a long history with East Texas and deep love for Kilgore.

Also mentioned is Joe White, East Texas Oil Museum director, who showed Helen Bryant, Texas Highways reporter, and Skeeter Hagen, freelance photographer, around the various dioramas activities at the museum.

While in town Hagen and Bryant also visited Kilgore's Rangerette Showcase Museum, which earned mid-article sidebar.

From the neon lights of the historic Crim and Texan theaters and the city skyline, right down to the attractions and people that make Kilgore unique, Texas Highways came, they saw and they are shouting Kilgore's praises all across Texas.