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1965 Map of Goldsmith

Name: 1965 Topographic Map of Goldsmith
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1981
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1981

About this map

Industrial expansion in the Permian Basin is clearly etched across the landscape of Goldsmith, where a dense grid of streets meets the infrastructure of the West Texas petroleum industry. The landscape is dominated by a complex network of pipelines and service roads connecting the Goldsmith Oil Field, North Cowden Oil Field, and Donnelly Oil Field. These fields create a sprawling pattern of extraction sites that surround the small settlement and its associated Oil Camp.

Scattered throughout this arid terrain are numerous named windmills, such as the Bull Pasture Windmill and Six Section Windmill, indicating the ongoing importance of groundwater for ranching even as the oil industry expanded. Small ephemeral water bodies like Prairie Dog Lake and Coyote Lake break the regularity of the oil fields, while features like the Water Tank and Radio Tower serve as vertical landmarks in the relatively flat expanse of Ector County.