Midland was originally founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1881. The city has received national recognition as the hometown of First Lady Laura Bush and the childhood home of President George W. Bush.
Once a small town based on farming and ranching, Midland was forever changed by the discovery of oil in the Permian Basin in 1923 when the Santa Rita No. 1 well came in in Reagan County, followed shortly by the Yates oil field in Iraan, Texas. Soon Midland was transformed into the administrative center of the West Texas oil fields. Today, the Permian Basin produces a fifth of the nation's total petroleum and natural gas output.
Today, Midland's economy still relies heavily on petroleum; however the city has also diversified to become a regional telecommunications and distribution center. As of August 2006, a busy period of crude oil production had caused a significant workforce deficit. According to the Midland Chamber of Commerce, there were almost 2,000 more jobs available in the Permian Basin than there were workers to fill them.
The majority held that the districting inequality violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection clause. The dissenting minority held that this example of the Warren Court's policy of incorporation at the local government level exceeded the Court's Constitutional authority.
John Howard Griffin wrote a history of Midland, Land of the High Sky (1959).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 66.8 square miles (173.0 km²), of which, 66.6 square miles (172.5 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km²) of it (0.28%) is water.
Nicknamed "The Tall City", Midland has a remarkable skyline for a city its size. For many years, the Wilco Building in downtown Midland was the tallest building between Fort Worth and Phoenix. Today, Midland's tallest building is the Bank of America Building, which stands at a height of . Four buildings over tall were planned in the 1980s, including one designed by world famous architect I.M. Pei. The great Oil Bust of the mid-1980s, however, killed any plans for future skyscrapers.
Because of the current energy-driven economy and an increasingly bold vision for downtown revitalization, a move is underway to bring mixed-use development to the downtown area. This has resulted in the on-going demolition of several older buildings and the plans for replacement of several more. The Summit Building, 300 N. Marienfeld, in mid-2008 became the first building in the Midland area to be depicted on Google Earth in a 3D mode. The GIS Division of the City of Midland has a long-range plan to render more of the downtown area in the new rendering.
The Midland Community Theatre (MCT) 
has been entertaining the Permian Basin since 1946 with musicals, comedies, dramas, mysteries, children's theatre and melodramas. MCT produces 15 shows each year in three performance spaces - Davis Theatre I (485 seats) and Mabee Theatre II (155 seats) are located in the Cole Theatre along with the Box Office, Business Office, Technical Areas and Rehearsal and Classroom spaces. Midland Community Theatre also produces its annual fundraiser Summer Mummers at the 1929 historic Yucca Theatre in downtown Midland. MCT has an extensive education program, including the Pickwick Players (teen performance troupe), Theatre School programs and OutReach classes. MCT operates with a professional staff of 20 and depends upon the hard work and dedication of hundreds of volunteers in the Permian Basin to produce shows throughout the year. MCT is a member of the American Association of Community Theatre , and hosted the 2006 AACT International Theatrefest.
Perched on the Llano Estacado, a stark treeless plain that has been extensively overgrazed by ranchers, Midland is not known for scenic beauty, unless the visitor is keen on seeing a Cormac McCarthy-esque landscape of pumpjacks, Texas Horned Lizards, mesquite and caliche. Midland's main attraction therefore is oil: lots and lots of oil. Sitting near the center of the Permian Basin, Midland welcomes geologists, petroleum engineers, landmen, and financial speculators to help extract the oil from one of the largest deposits in North America. For the Midland visitor curious to know more about this endeavor, there is the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. Located on the outskirts of town near Interstate 20, the museum houses numerous displays on the history, science, and technology of oil and gas development.
The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum also houses a collection of race cars designed by Jim Hall, a long time Midland resident who pioneered the use of aerodynamic downforce in the design of Formula One cars.
Midland is also home to The Museum of the Southwest. The Museum features a fine collection of paintings by various members of the Taos Society of Artists and Karl Bodmer plus hand colored engravings by John J. and John W. Audubon. It also includes a separate Children's Museum and the Marian W. Blakemore Planetarium. The main portion of the Museum is housed in the Turner Mansion, the historic 1934 home of Fred and Juliette Turner.
Another organization located in Midland is the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). The origin of the CAF dates back to 1951, with the purchase of a surplus Curtiss P-40 Warhawk by Lloyd Nolen, a former World War II Army Air Corps flight instructor. In 1957, Nolen and four friends purchased a P-51 Mustang, each sharing in the $2,500 cost of the aircraft. With the purchase of the Mustang, known as Red Nose, the group was unofficially founded. Associated with the CAF is the CAF Airpower Museum. The CAF's internationally recognized museum is loaded with WWII artifacts and memorabilia. It is also one of only a handful of Texas museums to be accredited by the American Association of Museums. As part of the museum tour, visitors can see aircraft on display in the CAF hangar. The 14-20 aircraft on display change quarterly, so there's always something different to see. A research library and archives house a significant oral history collection and give the public access to the museum's abundant information resources. These CAF facilities provide students, teachers, historians and the community at large with educational and summer programs, tours, special events and seminar series.
Amateur and professional anthropologists alike will want to see the "Midland Man" (actually "Midland Woman" as it turns out), fragments of a ribcage and skull found by Keith Glasscock on the Scharbauer Ranch south of town. The remains were excavated and analyzed originally by a team of academics led by Dr. Fred Wendorf, Dr. Alex D. Krieger and Dr. Claude C. Albritton. Based on radiocarbon analysis of the bone fragments, the Wendorf team estimated that the remains were at least 10,000 years old. Later work by Dr. Curtis R. McKinney using uranium-thorium analysis confirmed that the bones are 11,600 ± 800 years old. Presenting his findings at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in 1992, Dr. McKinney said, "[T]he Midland Woman was related to the earliest ancestors of every Indian who lives today, and she is very likely the only representative of those who created the Clovis cultures."
The Midland Man exhibit is part of the Midland County Historical Museum, housed in the Midland Public Library. The exhibit shows only reproductions of the bones.
Other Midland attractions of note include Dennis the Menace Park, Green Acres Miniature Golf Course, the "Festival of Lights" held each Christmas in the Racquet Club neighborhood, San Jacinto Junior High, and Sam Houston Elementary (where George W. Bush briefly attended school).
Many major motion pictures have been filmed in and around Midland, including Hangar 18, Waltz Across Texas, Fandango, Blood Simple, Hard Country, Friday Night Lights, The Rookie, Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, and others.
In the Heroes television series, the Midland-Odessa area is a focal point for many of the first season's episodes, serving as the home for the Bennet family as well as the location of a recurring restaurant, the Burnt Toast Diner.
As of the census of 2000, there are 94,996 people, 35,674 households, and 25,221 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,426.2 people per square mile (550.6/km²). There were 39,855 housing units at an average density of 598.3/sq mi (231.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 75.51% White, 8.37% African American, 0.63% Native American, 1.01% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 12.49% from other races, and 1.96% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 28.99% of the population.
There were 35,674 households out of which 37.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.4% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.3% were non-families. 25.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.19.
In the city the population was spread out with 29.9% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 92.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $39,320, and the median income for a family was $48,290. Males had a median income of $37,566 versus $24,794 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,884. About 10.1% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.4% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over.