Porter, Texas

Everything Porter is known for

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Music in Porter

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Artists From Porter

S
Sundance Head
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Porter

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Porter.

U.S. Route 59 9 songs Interstate 45 8 songs US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs Trinity River 11 songs Brazos River 42 songs

Musical Heritage

An Astronaut and Two Generations of Head RoadyGoat

For a town this size, Porter's roster is absurd. Robert Crippen grew up here and went on to pilot Columbia on the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981, then commanded three more missions and ran Kennedy Space Center. That alone would carry most small towns. Porter also holds two generations of one of Texas music's odder careers. Roy Head cut Treat Her Right in 1965 and rode it to number two on the pop chart and number two rhythm and blues, beaten to the top spot only by the Beatles, then spent the seventies reinventing himself as a country singer with a couple dozen chart entries. He died here in Porter in September of 2020. His son Jason, who performs as Sundance Head, grew up around those gigs, turned chairs on The Voice, and won the eleventh season in 2016. A shuttle pilot and a father-and-son pair of hitmakers, out of a place that had four businesses in 1940.

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One High School, an Astronaut and a Slugger RoadyGoat

For a district out in the piney woods, New Caney High School has an absurd alumni list. Robert Crippen came up here and went on to pilot Columbia on the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981, then commanded three more missions and ran Kennedy Space Center. Adam Dunn came through as a quarterback and left as one of the most feared power hitters in baseball, finishing with four hundred sixty-two home runs across fourteen big-league seasons. Jason Head, who performs as Sundance Head and grew up just down the road in Porter, won the eleventh season of The Voice in 2016 — his father was Roy Head, who took Treat Her Right to number two in 1965. An astronaut, a slugger and a singer, out of a school whose first graduating class in the nineteen thirties had nine students in it. Not a bad return on a town most people only ever see from the highway.

RoadyGoat → · 3.8 mi away

History of Porter

He Made Astronaut for a Program That Never Flew RoadyGoat

The kid who grew up in Porter took the least likely road to orbit there is. Robert Crippen was born in Beaumont in 1937 and raised here, went to New Caney High School, and took an aerospace engineering degree at the University of Texas. He went to sea first, flying off the carrier USS Independence as a Navy pilot in the early sixties. Then in 1966 the Air Force picked him for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, a military space station meant to put officers in orbit with a camera. Crippen was, on paper, an astronaut. The program was cancelled in June of 1969 without ever launching a crew. He had made it and it had evaporated. NASA absorbed seven of the stranded MOL pilots that August, and Crippen waited another twelve years for a seat. On April 12, 1981, he finally got one, sitting beside commander John Young as pilot of Columbia on the first Space Shuttle flight, a brand-new machine that had never flown in space with nobody aboard to test it first. He commanded three more missions and later ran Kennedy Space Center.

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The Mill That Lost Its Apostrophe and an S RoadyGoat

The town you're rolling through almost had a different name, and a longer one. When settlers in this corner of southeast Montgomery County asked for a post office in 1892, one of the men who'd put down roots here was James Porter, who ran a sawmill cutting the piney-woods timber all around. The community wanted to call the place Porter's Mill, honoring both the man and the work that fed the settlement. The Post Office Department turned that name down, as it often did with long or possessive names, and the office opened simply as Porters, plural, with no mill and no apostrophe. For sixty-odd years the town carried that awkward extra S, a leftover plural pointing back at a single sawmill family. Finally, in 1953, the post office quietly dropped the S, and Porters became Porter, the name on the signs today. It's a small thing, one letter, but it tells you the town was named for a working sawmill and the man who ran it, not some grand founder, which fits a place that grew up around logs, rail cars, and cattle. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Porter, Texas.)

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From a Porter Living Room to the Voice Crown RoadyGoat

Porter raised a singer with soul in his blood. Jason Head, who performs as Sundance Head, was born here in Porter, and his last name is no accident in Texas music: his father was Roy Head, the blue-eyed-soul singer who scored a national Top Ten hit in 1965 with Treat Her Right. Sundance grew up around his dad's gigs and was reportedly pulled onstage to sing as a kid, then spent years grinding through Texas bands, blending country, southern soul, blues, and rock into one gravelly voice. He first reached a national audience as a semifinalist on American Idol in 2007, then bet on himself again nearly a decade later. In 2016 he turned chairs on The Voice during his blind audition, landed on Blake Shelton's team, and on December 12, 2016, won the show's eleventh season. During the finale he even sang his father's old hit, closing a circle that started in this Montgomery County town. From here, the kid whose dad sang Treat Her Right grew up to win one of the biggest singing shows in the country. (Source: Wikipedia; AllMusic.)

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New Caney

1860

Permanent settlement in what is now New Caney began in the 1860s. The area was first called Presswood for the pioneer family of Austin and Sarah (Waters) Presswood. The Presswoods came to Texas in 1862, purchased land in the area, and raised cattle on the open ranges. The family of John Wesley Robinson (1819-1903) also settled here in the 1860s and began farming, cattle raising, and cotton ginning operations. When the Houston, East and West Texas Railway line was laid through Montgomery County in the 1870s, the community became a shipping point for livestock. It then was known for many years as Caney Station, named for the dense cane brakes growing along nearby creeks. In 1882, when a post office was established, the name New Caney was adopted. Early industries in New Caney were confined chiefly to those that were necessary to carry on farming and cattle raising. As the timber industry began to flourish, however, mining props, used to support the earth along the side and roof of mining tunnels, were shipped out of New Caney. The settlement and early history of New Caney are important reminders of the rich heritage of this part of East Texas and Montgomery County. (1984)

Historical Marker →

Humble

1905

A pioneer oil boom town. Originated as crossroads community named for settler Pleasant Smith Humble (1835?-1912), who lived here before 1889, hewing his timber into railroad ties, mining gravel from his land, keeping store, and serving as justice of the peace. Neighbors included the Bender, Durdin, Isaacks, Lee, Slaughter, and Williams families. Economic bases were farms and sawmills. The post office opened 1902. In 1904 C. E. Barrett (1866-1926) drilled for oil in this area, securing small production on Moonshine Hill. On Jan. 7, 1905, he brought in the No. 2 Beaty Well which yielded 8,500 barrels a day, opening the great boom. From a village of 700, Humble grew at once into a town of 20,000. Field production-- the largest in Texas for the year 1905-- was 15,594,923 barrels of oil. The field was named for the town. A group of its operators, including Ross S. Sterling, later (1931-33) governor of Texas, in 1911 incorporated a new oil company named for the field, thus spreading into the annals of world commerce the town's name. Production from several strata here exceeded the total for fabulous Spindletop by 1946. Known as the greatest salt dome field, Humble still produces and the town for which it was named continued to thrive.

Historical Marker → · 7.5 mi away

Humble Oilfield

1902

Humble field is an oil-producing area located 1.25 miles northeast of the town of Humble in northeastern Harris County on the Upper Gulf Coast of Texas. Named for its location, the field has drawn oil and negligible amounts of gas from an anhydrite and limestone reservoir in the caprock and on the flanks of a piercement salt dome in the Eocene, Miocene, Oligocene, and Pliocene formations at depths of 580 to 5,819 feet. Along with three other highly prolific piercement salt dome fields, Spindletop (1901), Sour Lake (1901), and Batson-Old (1903), Humble helped to establish the Texas oil industry when these fields produced the first Texas Gulf Coast oil. Field development was guided by both major and independent companies and centered on the caprock from 1905 through 1913, when flank production was begun. Through continued yields from deeper horizons on the flanks, Humble field was still producing as it approached its tenth decade and as its cumulative total neared 153 million barrels of oil by 1994. The area surrounding Humble field attracted oil prospectors who searched for another Spindletop discovery and who were encouraged by gas and sulphur found in water wells and by paraffin dirt found on the surface. In the fall of 1902 George Hart spudded a well in the field on evidence of escaping gas in the area. His operation was halted by a blowout, an unexpected volume of gas under pressure, that forced the drilling equipment out of the hole. Blowouts were encountered in several wells in the part of the field later called "the hill" and drilled in the summer of 1904 by C. E. Barrett of Houston. Despite the menace of blowouts, some success was found in the early field when Higgins Oil and Fuel Company brought in a large-volume gas well half a mile southeast of the Barrett wells in October 1904. By the end of the year Humble field reported two sporadically-producing oil wells that had yielded 2,000 barrels of oil. Since none of the crude had been sold, it was stored in earthen tanks for use in the field. Even though blowouts hampered field development, their threat was minimized by the invention of a blowout preventer, which was in use by 1905 when D. R. Beatty brought in the No. 2 Fee. The well came in on January 7, 1905, and gave up the first gusher production in the field with a potential of 8,500 barrels of oil per day from a depth of 1,012 feet. Other wells were sunk into the same shallow caprock, and some showed potentials of 10,000 barrels of oil per day. At the end of the first month of flush production Humble field reported a yield of 152,653 barrels of oil, and in February operators brought 495,847 barrels to the surface. On March 3, 1905, salt water began to appear in the wells. At the end of June, after six months of gusher production, the field peaked with a monthly figure of 2,798,162 barrels of oil and immediately began its decline. Because no Texas fields were prorated before 1930, no regulations prevented operators from overproducing the field, and the first annual yield was an astounding 15,594,310 barrels of oil. Excessive overproduction in the first year extracted a toll on the field by bringing salt-water encroachment in wells, by damaging the gas cap drive of the reservoir, and by forcing Humble field crude prices as low as $.16 per barrel when millions of barrels of new oil were dumped onto the market. From 1905 through 1913 development of the field concentrated on the caprock of the salt dome, producing at depths of 1,100 to 1,200 feet. By the end of 1906, with flush production waning, the field yielded less than 3.6 million barrels of oil, and by 1907 it gave up only 2.9 million barrels, most of which was shipped to refineries by railroad tank cars. From 1907 through 1913 field production averaged 2 million barrels of oil per year, and no deeper exploration was attempted. When deep production was found on the dome flanks at Sour Lake field, operators in Humble field drilled into zones below 2,500 feet, hoping

Tsha Handbook → · 8.2 mi away

Humble, TX (Harris County)

1904

Humble is located on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and U.S. Highway 59 eighteen miles northeast of Houston in northern Harris County, where the Big Thicket meets the coastal plain. The community serves as a retail and shipping center for an agricultural and lumbering section of the Cypress Creek valley at the center of the Humble oilfield , once the largest in Texas. Humble was a crossroads community in 1870, named for its founder, Pleasant S. Humble, a San Jacinto River ferry operator who arrived before the Civil War . Humble ran a commissary, cut railroad ties from local timber, and served as justice of the peace. Settlement in the area stopped during the Civil War but resumed after Reconstruction . In 1876 the town was a flag station on a railroad known as "the Rabbit" because passengers shot rabbits when the train stopped on the way from Houston to Shreveport. Residents pursued lumbering and agriculture, and by 1880 the population numbered ten Whites and fifty Blacks; the Blacks ran the lumbermill. Mill owner Charles Bender purchased the townsite, established a commissary where workers traded tokens for merchandise, and took over management in 1886. A post office opened that year, a school by 1887, and two hotels, two general stores, a sawmill, and a church by 1896. A local school established in 1890 had fifty pupils. In 1894 the railroad was taken over by the Houston, East and West Texas Railway. Humble became a boomtown in 1904, when oil was discovered nearby and the townsite was laid out. By the time the Lone Star Hotel was built and thirty wells were completed several months later, 10,000 people lived in the area, and by 1905 the Humble oilfield was the largest producing field in Texas. Numerous businesses were established over the next five years, including a bank, a theater, a dry-goods store, hotels, and in 1909 the Oil City News , which became the Harris County Sun in 1935. By 1906, however, production declined, the population fell to 7,500, and the community lost its original town government. Ross S. Sterling operated a feed store at Humble before he entered the oil business and founded Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A. ) in 1911, but moved his headquarters to Houston in 1912. By 1914 only 3,000 residents were reported in Humble, but a second boom that year and a partial boom in 1929, when the population reached 4,000, spurred municipal development. During World War I members of the Nineteenth Infantry from Fort Sam Houston operated an army training camp at Moonshine Hill. Local residents did not immediately feel the effects of the Great Depression , but the population eventually declined to 1,500, and many farmers returned to truck farming and dairying. After defeating a proposal to incorporate in 1929, a new city charter was obtained on August 28, 1933, and the town incorporated. Oil production in World War II brought an influx of workers that increased the population from 1,371 in 1940 to 2,600 by the 1960s. The Eastex Freeway (U.S. Highway 59) from Houston to Humble was completed by 1970, when efforts to restore the downtown area were made, and a library, a city hall, a community hall, a park, and a historical museum were completed or under construction. Proximity to Houston Intercontinental Airport and Lake Houston attracted new residents to Humble and gave rise to fourteen new subdivisions and other summer-home construction. Workers commuted to Houston or were employed at Utex Industries, a metal manufacturer, which operated nearby. In 1990 the population was 12,060. In the 1990s Old Humble, east of the railroad tracks and south of Farm Road 1960, was populated by artists and antique dealers. By 2000 the population reached 14,579.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.2 mi away

Hightower, Verna Lee Booker [Boots]

1930

Verna Lee Hightower, rodeo competitor, the first African American to become an official member of the Girl's Rodeo Association, and civil rights activist, was born on June 26, 1930, in Spring, Texas, near Houston, to Arthur Booker and Alvirita (Wells) Booker. At an early age, Verna developed a love for the outdoors and horses, so much so that she earned a nickname of "Boots." After Verna's parents divorced, her mother moved the family to Houston. When Verna Lee Booker married Ted Hightower (date unknown), she began to train and ride more regularly. She devoted most of her time to and excelled at barrel racing. In 1949 the Hightowers purchased their first home which was located near the Diamond L Ranch, a rodeo arena on South Main in Houston. The arena, built by Black cowboy J. L. Sweeney, served as a venue where African-American cowboys and cowgirls came to compete. Verna Hightower gained early exposure and success in competitions at the Diamond L Ranch rodeos. She competed on the national level on the Black rodeo circuit in Okmulgee and Henrietta, Oklahoma, and Simonton and Pasadena, Texas, where she was very successful. Soon she became the "poster girl" for area rodeos. Aside from rodeo, the Hightowers were the parents of six children-Lewis, Alvirita, Gilbert, Gerald, Christine, and Dee Dee-all of whom were involved in the family business of rodeo. They were taught a "healthy respect for riding and ranch animals." Dee Dee, one of the younger daughters, died at an early age. Verna's family was well-known as the first African-American family listed as "trainers" and "owners" of livestock presented at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. In 1969 Hightower became the first African-American woman to take part in the barrel racing competition in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She was also a member of the National Colored Rodeo Association and the Southwest Rodeo Association, Inc., as well as the Girl's Rodeo Association (now the Women's Professional Rodeo Association ). Verna and her family were members of St. Stephens Missionary Baptist Church in Houston. She was an accomplished pianist, as well as an advocate for civil rights. In 1963 Verna and Ted Hightower filed a successful lawsuit against the Houston Independent School District to allow their children to attend the White schools that were closer to their home instead of the Black schools across town. Verna also worked as a medical assistant at the Lyons Medical Clinic in the Fifth Ward in Houston. Verna Lee Booker Hightower died on August 27, 1970, in Harris County. In 2007 she was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in Fort Worth.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.6 mi away

Moonshine Hill

1887

Early reports of natural gas seepages in this area were not uncommon in the late 19th century. James Slaughter noticed such natural occurences near the San Jacinto River in 1887. Several years later, with S. A. Hart, he set up a drilling operation in the area, but it proved unsuccessful. Charles Barrett, a former Huston merchant, also drilled wells here, but found the results limited. In 1904, the Higgins Oil Company brought in a major gas well and the following year, the first successful oil well was drilled. This area, known as the Moonshine Hill section of the great Humble oil field, became the site of a boom town. Within months of the 1905 discovery, the population of the Moonshine Hill settlement increased to 10,000. Early operations associated with the site included the Moonshine Oil Company of Walter Sharp, Ed Prather, and Howard R. Hughes. Although tents comprised most of the early structures, Moonshine Hill eventually included a church, school, postal station, stores, hotels, and saloons. Despite three separate boom eras, the last occurring in 1929, Moonshine Hill declined as a community. Its brief existence, however, had a dramatic impact on the economic development of Humble and Houston. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Historical Marker → · 7.1 mi away

Things to Do in Porter

food 24.0 mi away
Goodson's Cafe

Tomball cafe on State Highway 249, north of Houston. Ella Goodson took over the place in 1954, and the chicken-fried steak here has been called the best in…
quirky 22.2 mi away
Virgin Mary Oak Tree

An oak tree in the Garden Oaks neighborhood where passersby report seeing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the bark and leave flowers and religious…

Everything Near Porter

528 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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