It is located in western Rusk County, Texas, United States approximately seven miles west of the city of Henderson.

The latter owned seven enslaved persons and donated 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land for the Juan Ximenes Survey before the Civil War.

In 1930, the name was officially changed to "Joinerville", in honor of Columbus Marion Joiner, the wildcatter who discovered the East Texas Oil Field.

[3] During the oil-boom years that followed 1930, men and families flocked to East Texas to find work in the oilfields and Joinerville's population shot up to 1,500.

During the 1930s, the community, which had been nothing more than a sleepy farm town, now had thirty-five businesses and a brand new post office (established in 1931 with Esther L. Berry as the first postmistress).

The rebuilt school featured ten buildings, expansive sports facilities, and striking walls of native rock surrounding the campus.

In about 1930, the community of Cyril was renamed "Joinerville" to honor Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner, an American oilman.

In 1926, at the age of 66, Joiner decided to move south, to Texas, believing there was oil in Rusk County, though geologists advised him otherwise.

In the summer of 1927, Joiner, now 67 years old, took mineral leases on several thousand acres of Texas land, intending to sell certificates of interest.

Joiner abandoned the well, and then on April 14, 1928, he formed another syndicate from another lease block of 500 acres and sold certificates of interest.

Joiner's certificates again were bartered for supplies and labor, openly accepted as a medium of exchange in the poor Rusk County economy.

Some people claimed - perhaps with good reason - that Joiner was an old con artist and that his flimsy drilling equipment (consisting mostly of rusty pipes and a sawmill boiler for power) was merely a prop to scam investors.

Up to this point, no one was yet aware that the largest oilfield in the world was sitting, untouched, in East Texas, right under Joiner's feet.

This giant East Texas Oilfield extended into parts of Smith, Upshur, Gregg, Cherokee, and Rusk counties, ultimately with 30,340 historic and active oil wells.

The resulting glut helped destabilize the US oil market in the early 1930s and hurt the international economy, thus deepening the Depression.

With the only known surviving Tent House, museum visitors may truly step back in time and see how people lived during the 1930 oil boom.

[7] The Gaston Museum has memorabilia from the boom era, family history, an antique radio display with original equipment, original equipment from 1930's radio repair shop, Gaston School, businesses, and churches, and honors local veterans with a wall of honor.