The W.K. Gordon Center, a museum and research facility of Tarleton State University, is located on Interstate 20 at the site of the Thurber ghost town at exit 367 midway between Fort Worth and Abilene.
Thurber was a coal mining town seventy miles west of Fort Worth that boasted 10,000 inhabitants. With an economy based on underground mining for bituminous coal and the manufacture of bricks fired in kilns fueled by coal, the town thrived from the 1880s to the 1930s.
The TPM&M Company, as a subsidiary of the coal company, operated the town and ran all of its commercial enterprises. These included: mercantile stores, theater, livery stable, printing shop, drugstore, lumberyard, water system, gas system, ice plant, and even saloons.
W. K. Gordon Center is now a museum and visitors' center dedicated to the preservation, research, and recording of Texas industrial history including coal mining, brick making, and oil and gas exploration.
Address: 65258 IH 20 Mingus, Tx, 76463
Phone Number: 254-968-1886