Located just 20 miles from Midland, Texas, Odessa is a smaller, working-class city made famous by "Friday Night Lights," a book -- and later a film and television series -- that described the almost religious fervor of West Texas high school football.
Odessa's latest oil boom began once "[t]he oil companies figured out a way to make drilling old wells cost effective," said Mike George, president of Odessa's Chamber of Commerce. "That has turned an old oilfield -- the Permian Basin -- into the biggest play in the nation."
Developers built about 500 new homes last year to handle the newcomers. And nearly 2,500 new businesses opened in Odessa over the past three years, according to George.
