This Week in Odessa History

First concrete water tank was rising 90 years agoOdessa’s north hill reservoir, now dilapidated and leaking, will soon be history.

Ninety years ago this week, contractor Con Eckhardt had just finished pouring the concrete floor for the 250,000-gallon water tank. The wooden forms and steel reinforcing rods were ready to be set in place in preparation for pouring the concrete for the side walls.

Shortly before harvest in 1923, Odessa area farmers and able-bodied men of the town had joined to excavate the water tank site.

In 1923, it was thought that the new tank, which replaced two wooden tanks...