Editing Odessa, Texas (section)

==History==
{{more citations needed|section|date=April 2024}}
Odessa was founded in 1881 as a water stop and cattle-shipping point on the [[Texas and Pacific Railway]]. The first post office opened in 1885. Odessa became the county seat of Ector County in 1891 when the county was first organized. It was incorporated as a city in 1927, after oil was discovered in Ector County on the Connell Ranch southwest of Odessa.<ref name="Handbook">{{Cite web|first1=Bobbie Jean|last1=Klepper|title=ODESSA, TX|website=[[Handbook of Texas Online]]|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdo01|access-date=26 May 2015|date=15 June 2010|publisher=[[Texas State Historical Association]]}}</ref>

With the opening of the Penn Field in 1929, and the Cowden Field in 1930, oil became a major draw for new residents. In 1925, the population was just 750; by 1929, it had risen to 5,000. For the rest of the 20th century, the city's population and economy grew rapidly during each of a succession of [[oil boom]]s (roughly in the 1930s–1950s, 1970s, and 2010s), often with accompanying contractions during the succeeding busts (particularly in the 1960s and 1980s).<ref name="Handbook" />

=== Etymology ===
Odessa is said to have been named after [[Odesa]], a coastal city in [[Southern Ukraine|Southern]] [[Ukraine]], (historically spelled ''Odessa'')<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stewart |first1=Ashleigh |title=Globalnews.ca |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/8645877/ukraine-correct-pronunciation/ |access-date=9 June 2023 |website=Global News |publisher=Corus Entertainment Inc.}}</ref> because of the local [[shortgrass prairie|shortgrass prairie's]] resemblance to Ukraine's [[steppe]] landscape.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ector County, Texas History |url=http://www.historictexas.net/ector/history/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924030404/http://www.historictexas.net/ector/history/history.htm |archive-date=24 September 2015 |access-date=26 May 2015 |website=Historic Texas}}</ref>