The Million Barrel Tank put an eight-acre rim around the oil boom

The Million Barrel Tank is easier to grasp by its footprint than its name: its edge runs around eight acres beside U.S. 80 in Monahans. Shell Oil Company built it in 1928, during the local oil boom, to hold crude before shipment to refineries. Crews worked around the clock with hand-operated and horse-drawn equipment.

The finished tank could hold more than one million barrels, yet it filled to capacity only once. In the 1950s, another plan tried to turn the basin into a water-filled recreation center. That venture failed, but the enormous ring remained.

The site became a museum in 1986. In one piece of ground, Monahans tried three uses: storing oil, making a place to play, and preserving a place to remember. The eight-acre outline gives the boom a visible edge long after the crude moved on.