Oil Center is one of the “newer” communities of the county. It is located due south of Monument, sixteen miles south southwest of Hobbs and roughly seven miles west northwest of Eunice. It grew around 1937 up to serve the nearby plants of Phillips Petroleum Company and El Paso Natural Gas Company. It had a post office since about 1937. (1) It no longer has a post office, we understand. Today only a few structures and some remain.

---

(1) Julyan, Robert, “The Place Names of New Mexico,” University of New Mexico Press, 1998.