A Modern Day Boomtown

  In my neck of the woods, there is an oil boom going on and it has led to some growth in a normally economically depressed area, but the oil boom around here pales in comparison to what is going on in Hobbs, New Mexico, located near the southeast corner of that state.
  Hobbs is located 3 miles from the Texas border, if one were to drive east, and 49 miles from the Texas border if one were to drive south.
  Hobbs exploded into prominence in 1928 when the Discovery Well gushed forth black gold. What was an isolated town of a few hundred people suddenly exploded into a town of about 16,000 people and a rival town called New Hobbs, located immediately to the south of Hobbs and east of the gusher, sprang into existence and, within two years, had about 9,000 people.  
  When the Discovery Well  spewed forth on the Will Terry Ranch near Hobbs on June 13, 1928, the town was little more than a general merchandise store, a post office and a small school. The town's prospects for the future looked bleak. When the well first started gushing, it had to be capped because there was no infrastructure with which to transport the oil. There were no pipelines, no storage tanks, no railroad and also no roads to speak of except for primitive dirt tracks that all petered out within a few miles of the town. Very quickly all of these things were put in place and Hobbs and New Hobbs were declared the two fastest growing cities in the United States in the 1930 Census.
   Hobbs and New Hobbs merged into one town in 1938 and, ever since then, the town's fortunes have waxed and waned with the oil industry. The economy of Hobbs had been inextricably linked to the oil industry ever since the gusher came in. There is some agriculture in the area, mostly east of Hobbs in Texas, but not much. Hobbs is basically a one-industry town, although that is slowly changing as city leaders are working to diversify its economy.
  The population of Hobbs has been as high as 33,000, but, for the most part, it has hovered in the 26,000 to 29,000 range since the 1940s--until now. 
  The first time I ever saw Hobbs was in the early 1980s on my way to summer camp near 
Santa Fe. I remember saying to myself "Wow, what a depressed-looking town."  This was during the oil bust of the 1980s that led to the biggest bank foreclosure in American history, the
Midland National Bank in Midland, Texas, which is a 94 mile drive from Hobbs.
  The last 2 times I was in Hobbs, which were both in 2011, I could hardly believe my eyes!
From the 2000 Census to the 2010 Census, the population had jumped from 28,657 to 34,122. In the two years since the last Census was enumerated, the population has risen to about 46,000, making Hobbs the seventh largest city in New Mexico. The exact population is hard to determine because so many people are living in motels and RV parks because of the acute housing shortage. Apartments, houses and entire neighborhoods are under construction everywhere and they cannot be built fast enough because of the extremely high demand. New motels are being built and many other new businesses have moved in such as Lowe's and Home Depot.