On March 18, 1937, a massive explosion destroyed the New London Junior Senior High School instantly killing an estimated 296 students and teachers. The subsequent deaths of victims from injuries sustained that day brought the final death count to 311. The explosion was blamed on a naturl gas leak beneath the school building. Within weeks of the disaster the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring an odor to be added to natural gas which previously was odorless and therefore undetectable. This memorial to victims of that Explosion was erected in 1939.