Soon after residents voted to incorporate in March 1911, Shamrock officials identified the need for a reliable city waterworks. Before then, citizens drew water from two town wells or hauled it into town in barrels on wagons. A November 1912 election authorized the sale of $15,000 in bonds for a drinking water system that included a tower and reservoir on Railroad Avenue. In September 1915, city leaders accepted the bid of the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of Chicago, Illinois, to build the water tower. The all-steel structure was designed with a cylindrical tank with a hemispherical bottom, supported by four latticed channel columns held together with metal tie rods. The tank holds 75,000 gallons and rises 176 feet above ground level. Workers used a steam threshing machine to raise the tower's standpipe. The tower was built of railway bridge grade steel riveted together with rivet grade steel, and engineers accounted for the maximum pressure of Panhandle winds on the structure and the weight of the water. According to company records, this tower is the tallest tank of its class ever built by the company, and it remains one of the tallest water tanks in Texas. Built to supply a growing community, it is visible for about ten miles in any direction, and early 20th century travelers stopped there to water horses or wagon teams in concrete troughs beneath it while later travelers continued to use it to mark their progress.