Cities Service Co. -- Benton AR
N 34° 33.944 W 092° 35.218
15S E 537888 N 3824963
This 1930s-vintage Cities Service Co. gas station once sat proudly on the Bankhead highway as it passed through Benton AR. You can still see the old logo on the south side window.
Waymark Code: WMNJN1
Location: Arkansas, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2015
Views: 2
This 1930s-vintage Cities Service Co. gas station was located on the Bankhead Highway through Arkansas, which went through all the little downtowns on the route.
Cities Service Co. was founded in Bartlesville OK, and is today headquartered (as CITGO) in Houston TX.
In the 1930s, this company operated several gas stations throughout the South and the "mid-continent" area of the US, mostly in OK, AR, and TX. Source: (
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Cities Service Co. became CITGO in the 1982, when local Oklahoma oilman T. Boone Pickens offered to buy the business. Cities rebuffed Pickens and tried to be acquired by the Gulf Oil Company. Weh Gulf pulled out of the deal (which eventually led to Gulf's demise), Occiental Petroleum purchased Cities Service Co., creating CITGO, in 1982. Source: (
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The Bankhead Highway was the second transcontinental highway in the US (the Lincoln Highway was the first). It was created in 1916. The Bankhead stretched from a Zero Stone in front of the White House in Washington DC westward across the south and southwest to San Diego CA.
In Arkansas, most of the Bankhead routes follow the old US67 (modern I-30) and the US70.
For more on the Bankhead, see here: (
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