Petroleum Museum – An Interesting Find!

In our last blog we recapped our 900 mile journey from Arizona to Texas and the two Harvest Hosts we found to stay at. One of those was the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas.

We like to find stops that have something to offer for our $30 suggested fee, and this one piqued our curiosity, and it gave us something to look forward to and talk about on the long journey. Plus, as a home school family, it made for a great science stop.

The outside of this museum showcases several displays of various oil rigs and equipment involved in drilling for oil, and definitely worth walking around.

Inside is a fascinating history of the Permian Basin, this particular region of Texas. Driving through this area, it’s a lot of desert and oil rigs just about everywhere you look, so finding out that this area used to be a sea and underwater when dinosaurs walked the land was a stretch for the imagination!

We learned about the various layers and the animals and plant life that lived here during its “sea era” and how the dinosaurs would have lived. It also takes us through the history of modern man’s movement into the region to establish homesteads and their discovery of oil, and the oil industry from its chaotic start to the ongoing process it is today. Learning how each layer of the oil is processed and used, how the industry is regulated, and many of the false claims that are being made about the longevity of our oil supplies, or lack thereof.

In another section of the museum, there is a history on petroleum products that goes far beyond fuel for our vehicles. It is truly amazing how many products or their packaging rely on petroleum products.

We were also treated to an exhibit on Jim Hall and Chaparral Cars, with models on display and racing memorabilia and history.

There are other exhibits of art galleries and gemstones that were pretty neat, and unbelievable to see the size of some of the gems that were found!

We figured we’d spend an hour in the museum before getting on the road, but we ended up spending almost 3 hours there, which is how we ended up arriving to our campground after dark. Totally worth it to us, and we would happily have spent longer there. Luckily, they have virtual tours on their website, so we can revisit as we think of things we saw and want to know more about.

We were definitely glad to find a fun stop on this long stretch of road that doesn’t offer much in the way of scenery, but had loads to offer with history and modern life. It was a museum our teenager did not mind exploring, and he had no trouble finding three interesting things–our standard challenge for museum visits to get him to pay attention to something other than the gift shop or snack bar! I linked their website above, if you want to check them out virtually, or in person.

If you aren’t familiar with Harvest Hosts, it’s a camping membership that allows you to overnight at local businesses all over the country for a small fee. We’ve stayed at wineries, breweries, restaurants, museums, farms, drive-in theaters and many more, all as part of our membership. If you are interested, you can sign up and earn us credit towards next year’s membership at no cost to you using our Harvest Host Referral Link (Boondockers Welcome is a part of this and if you like golf, chat with me before signing up)! You can also check out other ways to save on our savings page at https://barnesonmove.com/savings/

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