SUNRAY

A short history of Sunray

Sunray, Texas, was founded by Jack Clarence Collins. He was born in Hartley, Texas, in 1893, and in 1902 moved to Channing with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.S. Collins. Jack graduated from Channing High School and later, in 1916, from Texas A&M, where he was class valedictorian and class president in his senior year. Later, he served for several years as cashier of the First National Bank of Channing while extending his family's ranch holdings. Mr. Collins was well-known and respected in ranching and financial circles and was a ranking member of the Republican Party for several years.

Jack Collins did not call the town "Sunray" when he laid it out in 1930. The first lots were sold at $10 each under the name "Altman", but a town in Rusk County had already appropriated that name, hence, the name "Sunray" was used. A post office was applied for on May 5, 1930, using the name "Altman", but because of the duplication, "Sunray" was not approved until 1935.

The change to the name "Sunray" came because Sunray Oil Company (later Sunoco) set up a gas-oil refinery near the town on 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land originally donated by Mr. Collins to Dana Oil and Gas Royalty Company. Sunray Oil Company bought Dana's holdings in the early Jones Field in northeastern Moore County, which was near the new town. The townsite location was determined by a new Rock Island Railroad route running from Dalhart to Morse along the northern edge of Mr. Collins's townsite survey. At the time, the town was 3 miles (4.8 km) from the Jones Well and 6 miles (9.7 km) from the Morton oil well—both early oil-gas discoveries in Moore County.

On Sunday, July 29, 1956, the nearby industrial plant was the site of a major accident. The McKee refinery fire killed 19 firefighters when a storage tank suffered a vapor explosion.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Sunray, Texas, revision 1374942160 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.