Where to Stay in Midland, Texas

What is Midland known for?

Midland works as a major centre for oil and natural gas production, and the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum sets out how the field beneath the city was found and worked. Politics left one address. The Bush Childhood Home is the best-known single address in Midland, kept from the years the family lived here.

Odessa sits twenty minutes away.

What are the main landmarks in Midland?

Most of what Midland preserves is residential. The Scharbauer House, the Cowden House, the Wallace Irwin House, the Mascho House, the Davenport House, and the Rankin House are a handful of the many residences Midland has kept from its first oil decades. Two churches stand among them.

First Presbyterian Church and First Baptist Church share the older streets with St Ann's Catholic Church Chapel. The museums matter most to visitors. The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum explains the field, and the Bush Childhood Home preserves an ordinary house that became a destination.

What is the history of Midland?

The date is 1881. Midland began as a small settlement in the county that took its name, and for its first decades it served the open country of the basin rather than any industry. Then the field was found.

Oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin turned Midland into a centre of the business, and the houses that went up in those years, the Scharbauer House and the Cowden House among them, record the money that arrived with it. The pattern has held ever since, and Midland's fortunes still move with the field. Odessa grew alongside it.

The two cities sit twenty minutes apart and are counted as a single metropolitan area, which is why the basin's business is usually described as belonging to both rather than to either. One house became famous. The Bush Childhood Home preserves an ordinary street address that later acquired national interest, and it draws visitors who would otherwise pass through Midland County without stopping.

A museum came later. The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum sets the whole story out in one building, from the geology of the basin to the rigs that worked it.

Where is Midland?

The basin sets the horizon. Midland occupies level ground in the Permian Basin, with the city limits running mostly through Midland County and a small part crossing into Martin County. Odessa lies twenty minutes away.

Nothing between the two interrupts the view, and the country around both is open enough that the road supplies the only landmarks for long stretches.

What is the climate of Midland?

The basin keeps the air dry. Midland's warm weather comes with the open ground of the Permian Basin, where little between the horizons holds moisture and the sun works on the town without interruption for most of the year. Nights drop away quickly.

The same emptiness that makes the days hot lets the heat off after dark, and the gap between afternoon and midnight is the local fact worth planning around.

How do you get to Midland?

Distances here are basin distances. Odessa lies twenty minutes along the road, and the two cities function as one arrival point, so an approach to Midland usually means crossing a good deal of open country first. The road does the work.

Nothing about Midland County makes for short journeys, and travel between the towns of the Permian Basin is measured in hours of straight highway rather than in stops. A car is essential.