Cable Tool Rig

Duane's take

Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about this one. Now, let me paint you a picture of what it took to pull oil out of the deep Texas earth back in the day. We're talkin' about the cable tool rig, the machine that drilled the early deep oil wells in this state.

The derrick standin' before you right now is an exact replica, with the same rigging and the same tools used in 1920 to drill a well called the Crowley Number One. Same setup. Same iron.

Let that settle for a second. What you're lookin' at is as close to the real thing as it gets. Now, the Crowley Number One; that wasn't just any hole in the ground.

She came in as a 250-barrel producer, pulled from a depth of 3,500 feet. That was one of the deepest wells up to that time. Three thousand, five hundred feet down into the earth, with cable and tools and sheer determination.

Near Breckenridge, in one of the great fields in what the marker calls the oil empire of Texas. The oil empire of Texas. That's not a phrase somebody throws around lightly.

And the cable tool rig is how you got into it: one slow, deliberate stroke at a time, pounding down through rock and time until Texas gave up what she was holdin'. That derrick right there tells the whole story.

What the marker says

Drilled the early deep oil wells in Texas. Derrick here is exact replica and has same rigging and tools used in 1920 to drill the Crowley No. 1, a 250-barrel producer at 3500 feet--one of deepest wells up to the time. It was near Breckenridge, in one of great fields in oil empire of Texas. (1966)