Businesses & Industries of Moore County

The American Zinc file in the archives room at the museum tells the story of the hot, hard jobs done by workers at the plant. When the plant opened in 1936, it was one of the smallest horizontal retort zinc smelters in the country. It grew to become one of the largest zinc plants in the country.
Bakery items are popular items on any dinner table -- whether it is cookies, cakes, pies, bread, or doughnuts.  One of the early bakeries in Dumas was opened by brothers who had been running a successful bakery business in Amarillo.
For decades, the lanes at Oak Lanes Bowling were always filled with avid bowlers in league competition and with those bowling just for fun.
In April 1941, Moore County received a telegram from Congressman Eugene Worley reporting a contract with Chemical Construction Company of New York to build, equip, and staff a manufacturing plant in Moore County. Information was kept secretive and details were few, since it was a wartime project.
John Wesley Longstreth came to the Texas Panhandle from Pennsylvania in 1928 to supervise the construction of the Canadian River Gas Company Pumping Plant, 19 miles south of Dumas.
Discovery of gas for the city of Dumas led to a town celebration including a barbeque, rodeo, dance, and a baseball game.
When cotton came to Moore County, there was some doubt that it would be a profitable crop. When the first crop was harvested, truckers were loaded with 100 bales and paraded through downtown Amarillo. The parade was followed by a big banquet.
Charles Dore advertised that his "shop was equipped to handle all classes of repair work and carried a complete stock of car accessories, oils, greases, and casings." He also sold tires and ran the Hupmobile Service Station.
Grocery shopping in the 1950's and 1960's meant heading to the store on Wednesdays, grocery list in hand, to do the weekly shopping and earn double trading stamps on purchases! Trading stamps were given every day, but Wednesdays meant DOUBLE stamps.
In the archives at Window on the Plains is a story written by Mil Burnett Boyd about a gas well fire she witnessed. Mil had been gone on a trip and she and a friend, Mag Burnett, were eating lunch and catching up on what had happened while Mil was out of town. Mil asked Mag about "a glow on the east horizon she had seen while driving into Dumas the night before."
Louis Dumas worked to establish post offices in Moore County in 1891.
The coming of the railroad brought changes to Moore County and changed it from a small cattle town to a thriving industrial and agricultural center.
Louis Dumas came to Moore County from Grayson County with the idea of establishing a town. A January 1891 edition of the Tascosa Pioneer reported Louis Dumas had been in the Rivers (now Channing) area looking for a place to start a town.