Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today I would like to continue the journey through the 23rd District of Texas and talk about Kermit, Texas, which many people know as being one of the communities in the center of all of the action with respect to the energy economy in Texas, but I know it as the home of the Yellow Jackets, the Yellow Jackets who, for years, have been a formidable foe for my own Alpine Bucks. Kermit started life, the town started as a local trading and supply company, or trading and supply depot, for the ranches that dotted the west Texas landscape. Kermit gets its name not from a notable green frog known for being the first frog to communicate with humans, but, instead, it gets its name from Kermit Roosevelt, the only place in the United States that is named for the son of a former U.S. President, Teddy Roosevelt. Kermit, Texas, became the county seat of Winkler County in 1910 and was a city, like many of the other rural communities in Texas, that had a challenge staying alive. Small towns have always had a particular challenge, and in Kermit's case, they were devastated by a drought that struck the area in 1916 that forced many homesteaders and ranchers to leave. Kermit ran dry by 1924, and the Ern Baird family was the sole family in town, with three houses, a single-student school, and a lone courthouse. The whole town nearly evaporated into the air until that sea of oil was discovered below the surface and, in 1926, Kermit, Texas, became a boomtown.…”