There's a private spaceport being built on 165K acres in West Texas--financed by the guy who designed Doom and Quake. They think they'll have their first "ride" in six or seven years. Hope it has fewer bugs than the games did...but at least they don't want to ride on my dime.
You where thinking about John Carmack, who designed Doom and Quake and is now running Armadillo Aerospace up in the Dallas area.
Of course Elon Musk of PayPal fame has done some rocket engine testing for his SpaceX company's rocket in Central Texas.
With so many Internet mogels running rocket companies in Texas, it can be confusing keeping up on their progress. :)
Several states have space bases of one kind or another. Oklahoma has a space program of its own, as does California. Even Alaska has a couple of bases. Maybe it's a stretch to call them bases at this point, but they have the necessary range and zoning for rocket launches. I would like to see space bases as common as municipal airports, whether private as some airstrips are, or managed by the public agency.