Name: Boling, Texas
Address: Boling, TX

The Singer Who Lost His Voice and Built a Museum RoadyGoat

Larry Callies graduated from Boling High School. He was born over in El Campo in 1952 and grew up roping and helping his father break horses, and his father supplied stock to rodeos all over Texas, so he spent his boyhood summers on the circuit. He wanted to be a country singer like Charley Pride, and he got closer than most people ever do. He fronted Larry Callies and the Bronco Band, George Strait's manager managed him, and Clint Black's band backed him. Then in 1990, about two weeks before he was finally going to cut a record, his voice went. A neurological condition took it and it never came back. He carried mail for a living after that. In 2017 he opened the Black Cowboy Museum in downtown Rosenberg, which is his answer to the fact that roughly one in four working cowboys was Black and almost nobody was telling anyone about it.

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Boling, TX RoadyGoat

Boling, Texas, isn't exactly on the way to anywhere, which is probably why it's remained so steadfastly itself. You might think it's just another blink-and-you'll-miss-it spot in Wharton County, flat as a pancake and smelling faintly of the Gulf breeze and whatever's growing in the rice fields. But Boling's got a secret, a kind of slow-burn economic engine that sets it apart. It's the mineral wealth beneath those seemingly endless fields. While the surrounding towns built themselves primarily on agriculture, Boling became a hub for the sulfur industry. The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company established a major operation here, drawing workers and their families. That industry shaped the town's character, creating a blue-collar, hard-working community. Today, the sulfur mines are long gone, but that legacy remains. What draws people now is the quiet, the open spaces, and the real, unpretentious nature of the place. Locals will tell you people end up in Boling because they're looking for something genuine, a place where the stars are bright and the neighbors still wave. They’ll also likely mention the good hunting and fishing. It’s that simple, really.

Boling, TX RoadyGoat

Boling, Texas, sits on the rich coastal prairie of Wharton County, a place shaped by a fascinating blend of European cultures. The area was initially settled by Anglo-Americans drawn by the promise of fertile land for cotton and sugarcane. But alongside them came a wave of Czech and German immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking new opportunities. These families left an indelible mark on the landscape and character of the town. While English became the dominant language, you could once hear Czech spoken in homes and at community gatherings. Over time, particularly after the World Wars, the language faded as younger generations assimilated. Yet, the cultural heritage persists. The Catholic church still stands as a central point in the community, reflecting the strong religious traditions of the early settlers. Family names etched on mailboxes and in the local cemetery hint at the area's European roots. And while you might not find polka music on the radio, you'll still see kolaches and sausage making their way onto tables, a delicious reminder of Boling's unique cultural blend.

Boling Dome

1925

Boling Dome, an underground rock structure that contains petroleum, sulfur, and salt, is on the western bank of the San Bernard River almost entirely in Wharton County (at 29°18' N, 95°56'W). It is oval in shape and ranges five miles east-west and three miles north-south, encompassing 5,500 acres. The Boling Dome caprock mantle of minerals is shallow, 383 feet below the surface. Another 120 feet through caprock, at the center of Boling Dome, is the salt dome itself, about 500 feet below the surface. Its outer edge requires up to 5,000 feet of drilling before reaching salt. The entire Boling Dome area is seventy-five feet above sea level. Salt domes in Texas have been of particular geologic significance because of their mineral production. Most of them are located on the Gulf Coast between the lower Colorado and Neches rivers. They have also been used for product storage and disposal. Sulfur production at the Boling Dome is from the crest of the caprock to deep down the southeast flank of the cap. The first well went into production in March 1929, using the Frasch method for removal (pumping steam into the ground to melt the sulfur, then pumping the liquid sulfur out). The sulfur reserve covers more than 1,500 acres. This reserve, owned by Texasgulf , Incorporated, once produced more sulfur than any other sulfur mine in the world. By the time the mine closed in 1993, 80.8 million long tons of sulfur had been removed. The first oil well at the dome went into production in December 1925. As of 1989 the Boling field had produced 6,246 million cubic feet of natural gas and 25,635,836 barrels of oil. Over 8,000 wells had been drilled to mine the sulfur reserve, and 12,000 wells for oil and gas. In addition, at the Boling Dome, Valero, Incorporated, operates three gas-storage caverns in the salt stock, with a combined volume of 7.5 million barrels. Spacing between the boreholes for sulfur wells is about 100 feet; the sulfur holes, with the 12,000 additional injection wells for oil and gas, produce a highly porous zone that affects the integrity of the dome. On August 12, 1983, a sinkhole approximately 250 feet in diameter and twenty-five feet deep, formed suddenly over the crest of the Boling Dome on Farm Road 442 three miles north of Boling, collapsing the roadway. Water filled the ditch. In early drilling records such as those that the Gulf Production Company kept for a well drilled near the middle of the sinkhole in 1927, there is evidence that an underground cavern once extended over 100 feet vertically but apparently collapsed. Several other sinkholes have occurred over the Boling Dome, a condition that is becoming common at other salt dome sites where sulfur and oil are produced. Two communities, Boling and Newgulf, are located at the Boling Dome. Their existence is due directly to the production of sulfur and oil from the dome. Newgulf is a Texas Gulf Sulphur (now Texasgulf) company town that has largely depopulated since the Texasgulf mine closed in 1993, and Boling is located at the intersection of State Farm roads 1301 and 442.

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Boling

1900

This area was called Floyd's Lane prior to the advent of the New York, Texas & Mexican Railway in 1900. Named for the Bolling family of Virginia, the town name was misspelled when citizens applied for a U. S. Post Office. The economy was based on farming and the railroad until sulphur, oil, and gas were discovered on the Boling dome in 1925. Boling became a boom town; the population grew from 20 in 1920 to 450 in 1930. Many streets and subdivisions were named for the companies that flocked here. Mineral production was the dominant industry in the area for 70 years.

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G. C. and Clara Mick Home, 1909

1903

Oldest in town founded 1900, on new Wharton-Palacios rail line. Mick, Missouri wheat grower and stock farmer, entered Texas on a "Rice Special," 1903. First home on land was a hurricane victim. Eldest son, A. C. Mick, laid out Iago, was architect this house. Used Cuban carpenters. Mansard roof. Cistern on porch. First electric plant in area. Bell rung only in emergencies. Often a shelter in hurricanes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965

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Iago, TX

1899

Iago is at the intersection of Farm roads 1301 and 1096, two miles northwest of Boling and twelve miles east of Wharton in southeastern Wharton County. The local Caney Creek was originally named Canebrake Creek for the large primeval forest of what Texans call "cane," a native bamboo, Arundinaria , growing to heights of twenty feet. The first settlers burned off the large tracts of canebrake, built large plantations, and grew sugarcane and cotton. The results of the Civil War and the sugarcane blight ended the large plantations, and the area was generally abandoned until 1899, when the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway ran a branch from Wharton to Van Vleck in Matagorda County. This opened up the area to small farming interests. Clarence D. Kemp owned three and one-sixth leagues of land where he set up a mercantile store in the late 1880s. The nearest settlements were Waterville, five miles west, and Preston, three miles west. A post office operated in Iago from 1891 until 1901 with Kemp as postmaster. Kemp was sheriff of Wharton County from 1914 to 1921. G. C. Mick surveyed and laid out the township of Iago in 1911, from 1,000 acres that he bought from Kemp. The area had been part of the Seth Ingram league and was next to the railroad. The name Iago was chosen by M. D. Taylor and C. D. Kemp, after the villain in Shakespeare's Othello . The first school was organized in 1902; it became part of the Boling school district in 1941. By 1920 Iago had two gins, a syrup mill, a blacksmith, several mercantile and grocery stores, a drugstore and doctor, a barbershop, saloons, a church, and a population of 200. The 1927 Wharton County poll tax roll lists 134 White registrants, seven of whom were women, and fifty-three Black registrants, three of whom were women. The church was a federation of Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and Disciples of Christ. Each group was responsible for services one Sunday each month, and any fifth Sunday was open to other denominations. Summer revivals were sponsored by the groups in alphabetical order. An oil well was drilled in the front yard of the church in 1945, and the mineral royalty financed the building program on the original lot given by William Stafford . In 1958 the population was 300, but it dropped to 150 by 1964. The Iago Federated Church was still active in 1991. The school served as a Boling junior high. In 1990 a few businesses still operated in the area, and several outlying farms and oil and gas wells were still productive. A cemetery behind the school campus was neglected and overgrown. In 1990 Iago had a population of fifty-six, and in 2016 the population was estimated at 155.

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Albert Clinton Horton

1834

(1798-1865)
 Georgia native Albert Clinton Horton came to Texas in 1834 from Alabama, where he had served in the state legislature. He established a plantation along Caney Creek in present Wharton County. In 1835, he returned to Alabama to recruit volunteers for the Texas army, and he served as colonel of a cavalry unit during the Texas revolution. Upon the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836, Horton was elected to Congress. He was chairman of the commission appointed by President M. B. Lamar, which selected Austin as the site for a permanent capitol for the Republic of Texas in 1839. When Texas became a state in December 1845, Horton was elected its first lt. governor. He served as acting governor for a year while Governor Henderson was leading Texas forces in the Mexican war. When Baylor University was founded in 1845, Horton was a charter trustee. By the 1850s, he had homes in both Wharton and Matagorda. His home near this site, "Sycamore Grove," was razed in 1960. A community leader, he helped found Wharton's First Baptist Church. He and his wife, Elias Holliday, had six children, only two of whom lived to maturity. Horton died in 1865, and is buried in Matagorda Cemetery. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

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Boling, Texas

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The Singer Who Lost His Voice and Built a Museum RoadyGoat

Boling, TX RoadyGoat

Boling, TX RoadyGoat

Boling Dome

Boling

G. C. and Clara Mick Home, 1909

Iago, TX

Albert Clinton Horton

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