Old Ozona Hotel - Ozona, TX
N 30° 42.706 W 101° 12.045
14R E 289248 N 3399727
The old Ozona Hotel, built 1893 (with an ugly 1970s shell) located one block north of the OST in downtown Ozona, today operating as a funeral home
Waymark Code: WMTXMN
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/19/2017
Views: 3
In its day, the Old Ozona Hotel would have been the best place to spend the night between Junction and Fort Stockton -- a distance of over 250 miles on the OST/US 290 (200 miles via I-10).
Built in 1893, the Old Ozona Hotel on the courthouse square sports a historical marker that was affixed in 1968 reads as follows:
"OLD OZONA HOTEL
Built about 1893. From its early days, boarded teachers, visiting athletic teams and business callers in city.
Noted guests of 1919-1921 were geologists and lease men seeking to develop the now-significant oil fields of Crockett County."
Blasterz have found a great photo on the Portal to Texas History online of one of the geologists who stayed in the Old Ozona Hotel in the oil-exploration days. On the back of the postcard in old-fashioned handwriting is written:
"DICK DICKEY
Univ. of Texas geologist who said there is bound to be oil under the ground for there is nothing above." LOL
In the files of the Texas Historical Commission we found the folks who managed the Old Ozona Hotel in the earliest days of the OST.
Much of the OST passed through Texas, from Orange to El Paso. Most of the route of the OST is under the I-10, but parts of the old road have been preserved.
In the Texas Historical Commission files we found old pictures of the Ozona Hotel that showed the mangers in 1919-1921, and pictures of trucks from WWI that had stopped for the night at the hotel. Take a look at all the tumbleweeds on the Courthouse square -- WOW! This is what the OST through Ozona REALLY looked like!
In Texas, the OST west of San Antonio was designated the US290 after 1926. In 1935 that part of US 290 that ran west from SA was redesignated US 87, and US 290 was rerouted further north from Houston to reach Austin, before meandering through the Texas Hill Country to Fredericksburg and Kerrville, to El Paso.
Today, what used to be the US 290 west of its junction with the I-10 at the Kimble County line has been undesignated completely in favor of the I-10.
However, parts of the original US 290 OST route are preserved along SH 290 between the Crockett County towns of Sheffield and Ozona. In addition, the OST passed though Ozona on Ave E, also known today as SH 163.
Submission Criteria:
Period Culture
Website with More Information: [Web Link]
Address of Waymark:
9th and Ave D
Ozona , TX
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