Editing Big Spring, Texas (section)

== History ==
[[File:Signal Mountain TX 1900.jpg|thumb|left|[[List of peaks named Signal Mountain|Signal Peak]] located {{convert|10|mi|0|abbr=on}} to the southeast of Big Spring ([[Robert T. Hill]], 1889)<ref>[[Robert T. Hill|Hill, R.T.]] 1890. "A brief description of the Cretaceous rocks of Texas and their economic value". In: Dumble, E.T. (ed.), ''First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas'', 1889. Austin: State Printing Office, pp. 105–141.</ref>]]
[[File:•Big Spring, TX sign IMG 1438.JPG|thumb|Big Spring decorative sign]]
[[File:"Big Spring" of Big Spring, TX IMG 1430.JPG|thumb|The "big spring" in Comanche Trail Park]]
[[File:City Hall at Big Spring, TX IMG 1448.JPG|thumb|Big Spring City Hall]]
[[File:Big Spring Texas Settles Hotel 2013.jpg|thumb|Newly refurbished [[Settles Hotel]]]]
[[File:Veterans Hospital, Big Spring, TX IMG 1435.JPG|thumb|Big Spring Veterans Hospital]]

The area had long been a popular watering hole for [[Indigenous peoples in the United States|Native American]] residents and nomads, including members of the more recently established [[Jumano]], [[Apache]], and [[Comanche]] tribes. The first European to view the site was probably a member of a Spanish expedition exploring the [[Great Plains]] from [[New Mexico]]. During the 1840s and 1850s, Big Spring was often where Comanches assembled and organized themselves before departing on large-scale raids into northern Mexico during the [[Comanche-Mexico Wars]].<ref>Smith, Ralph A. (1985–1986), "The Comanches' Foreign War: Fighting Head Hunters in the Tropics," ''Great Plains Journal,'' Vol. 24-25, p. 21</ref>

Captain [[Randolph B. Marcy]]'s expedition in 1849 was the first United States expedition to explore and map the area.<ref>Marcy, R.B. 1850. "Report of Captain R.B. Marcy's route from Fort Smith to Santa Fe." In: ''Reports of the Secretary of War'', Executive Document 64, Washington, D.C., pp. 169–233. (See p. 208)</ref> Marcy marked the spring as a campsite on the [[Overland Trail]] to [[California]]. The site began to collect inhabitants, and by the late 1870s, a settlement had sprung up to support [[American bison|buffalo]] hunters who frequented the area. The original settlement consisted largely of hide huts and saloons. [[Ranching]] quickly became a major industry in the area; early ranchers included F.G. Oxsheer, C.C. Slaughter, and B.F. Wolcott.<ref>{{Handbook of Texas|id=heb09|name=Big Spring}}</ref>

One notable early rancher was [[Great Britain|Briton]] Joseph Heneage Finch, the Seventh [[Earl of Aylesford]]. Finch purchased {{convert|37000|acre|km2|0|abbr=on}} of ranchland in the area in 1883, and is credited with building Big Spring's first permanent structure, a butcher shop.<ref>{{Handbook of Texas|id=hch20|name=Howard County}}</ref>

The completion of the [[Texas and Pacific Railroad]] led to the founding in the early 1880s of Abilene, [[Colorado City, Texas|Colorado City]], and Big Spring, three railroading and ranching cities where saloons and gambling dens flourished.

More important in the city's history was the discovery of oil in the region during the 1920s. The early discoveries in the area marked the beginning of the oil industry in the [[Permian Basin (North America)|Permian Basin]] area of West Texas, and the oil industry has continued to be a dominant part of the area's economy. The oil industry in Big Spring reached its peak during the oil boom of the 1950s.

Another major part of Big Spring's economy and life during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s was [[Webb Air Force Base]]. It initially opened during World War II as the Big Spring Bombardier School. Following the war, it was converted to a US Air Force training base and was named for James Webb, a Big Spring native who died in action during World War II. Webb Air Force Base was active until 1977, when the base facilities were deeded to the city.

Big Spring was featured in the 1969 film ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'', which starred [[Dustin Hoffman]] and [[Jon Voight]], and received the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1969. The opening scenes featuring Voight, then a relatively unknown actor, playing the character Joe Buck, were filmed in Big Spring and the neighboring city of [[Stanton, Texas|Stanton]].

In 1980, Hollywood returned to Big Spring with the filming of ''[[Hangar 18 (film)|Hangar 18]]'',<ref name=hangar>{{cite web |url=http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2005/11/cult-movie-blogging-hangar-18-1980.html |title=Cult Movie Blogging: Hangar 18 (1980) |publisher=John Kenneth Muir |access-date=June 14, 2013|date=November 27, 2005}}</ref> a low-budget science-fiction movie about a space shuttle's collision with an alien spacecraft and the ensuing government cover-up. Several local residents were used as on-screen extras.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://space1970.blogspot.com/2012/01/hangar-18-197.html |title=The Secrets of HANGAR 18 (1980) |publisher=Space: 1970 |access-date=June 14, 2013|date=January 24, 2012}}</ref>

In 1999, a New York energy company erected the first {{convert|80|m|ft|adj=on}} tower for one of North America's largest wind turbines for that time at Big Spring.<ref>"Turbine timeline: The History of AWEA and the U.S. Wind Industry: 1990s." American Wind Energy Association. Retrieved November 24, 2015. [http://www.awea.org/About/content.aspx?ItemNumber=771&navItemNumber=5238 AWEA website]</ref><ref>"Same Big Spring Wind Farm, New Owners" (January 16, 2003). Retrieved November 24, 2015. [http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2003/01/same-big-spring-wind-farm-new-owners-7916.html Renewable Energy World.com website]</ref>

The [https://web.archive.org/web/20061120115228/http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/ FAI] World Hang Gliding Championship was hosted by Big Spring in August 2007.

=== Origin of the name "Big Spring" ===
The area's "big spring", long dry but recently modified to draw water from Comanche Trail Lake, was of major importance to all life in the surrounding area. In the early 1840s, it was the center of a territorial dispute between [[Comanche]] and [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]] tribes, and has been a major watering hole for wildlife and prehistoric people in this semiarid area.<ref name="Brune, G 1981. p. 235">Brune, G. 1981. ''Springs of Texas''. Vol. I, Fort Worth: Branch Smith, p. 235</ref> Early military scouting reports and pioneer accounts describe the water as cold, clear, and dependable; the spring pool was about {{convert|15|ft|0|abbr=on}} deep, with the overflow going only a short distance down the draw before it sank beneath the surface. The spring has mistakenly been described in other writings as being located in Sulphur Draw. It is actually located to the south, near the top of a small, rugged, unnamed draw running eastwards from the spring, and is itself a tributary to Beal's Creek, the name given to Sulphur Draw as it flows into, through, and past the city of Big Spring.

Long used by regional inhabitants, both permanent and nomadic, with a large number of locally collected artifacts testifying to its heavy occupation, the spring sat astride the several branches of the later-developed Comanche War Trail as they converged on this important water hole from beyond Texas, coming south across the Northern Plains and the [[Llano Estacado]]. From the Big Spring, the war trail continued south via three branches, one to the southeast through the western part of the Concho country; one going almost due south, heading for Castle Gap and Horsehead Crossing on the [[Pecos River]]; and one heading west to Willow Springs in the sand country southwest of present Midland, before turning south down the Pecos, all headed ultimately for [[Mexico]]. As whites began to settle the western territories, the spring continued to serve as a major watering place on the southern route of the Gold Rush Trail of the early 1850s and continued in use well beyond that time, as the cross-continental trail turned into a major road for later pioneers coming into the area.

The spring was sourced from a relatively small [[aquifer]] situated on the northern end of the [[Edwards Plateau]] and the southern end of the [[High Plains (United States)|High Plains]], being, structurally, a collecting sink of lower [[Cretaceous]] (Fredericksburg) limestones and sands.<ref name="Brune, G 1981. p. 235" /> The spring aquifer held a large quantity of water due to the great number of fractures, solution channels, and interstices in the rocks and underlying sands, although the areal extent of the Big Spring sink is estimated to be only {{convert|1|mi|0|abbr=on}} in diameter, with the main area only {{convert|3000|ft|0|abbr=on}} wide and almost circular, with some ellipticity trending towards the west. The Cretaceous beds subsided about {{convert|280|ft|0|abbr=on}} below their normal position, centered on the southeast quarter of Section 12, Block 33 T1S; T&P RR Co survey, and the entire stratum appears to be preserved within the sink, the surface topography roughly following the subsurface subsidence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Livingston |first1=P.P. |last2=Bennett |first2=R.R. |title=Geology and ground-water resources of the Big Spring area, Texas |series=Water Supply Paper 913 |date=1944 |publisher=United States Geological Survey |page=113 }}</ref> This writing identifies the sink as one of a number of similar subsurface geologic features in the surrounding area, differing from the Big Spring sink only in the fact that the surface topography above the others, while showing some decline, does not dip low enough to intersect the top of the water tables; hence, no springs could form from the other aquifers. In a passing comment, enigmatic in its content and disappointing in its brevity, the report states no other comparable deep sinks formed elsewhere on the Edwards Plateau.

The same publication suggests the spring's discharge volume was in excess of {{convert|100000|gal|liter|0}} per day at the time of the railroad's arrival in the area in the late 1880s. The water was heavily mined by wells built by both the railroad and the early town of Big Spring, greatly in excess of its modest recharge rate, until the water table first dropped below the level of the spring outlet, and finally, was completely depleted by the mid-1920s. The city now artificially fills the spring from its current source of water as a means of allowing residents and visitors to maintain some idea of how it appeared in times past.