DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at this spot has to say — and friend, this one deserves to be told slow. The well has a name that sounds almost like a shipping invoice: Clayco No. 1 Woodruff-Putnam. Sixteen hundred and twenty-eight feet deep.
You'd drill a long way down into that north Texas earth and wonder what you were doing out here — and then, on April 1st, 1911, you'd get your answer. April Fools' Day. Go ahead and sit with that for a second.
The day the whole world plays tricks on each other, the ground beneath Wichita County decided to play one of its own — except this joke flowed oil. Right here. Out of that hole in the earth.
And not just any oil. The marker doesn't mince words about what happened next: this was the opening of one of the world's greatest oil fields. The world's greatest.
Not Wichita County's greatest. Not Texas's greatest. The world's.
Now, something like that doesn't happen by accident, and it doesn't happen alone. There was a crew standing on this ground when it all let loose — nine men whose names got written down and kept. Hal Hughes.
Sam Turnbo. S. C.
Massengill, who everybody apparently called Dad. Lamar Weathersby. Clabe Moody.
Richard Harper. Ed Beeler. A.
F. Dennison. And R.
T. Craig. Nine names.
Nine men who showed up to work and ended up standing at the beginning of something the whole world would come to know. April 1st, 1911. Sixteen hundred and twenty-eight feet.
Nine men. One well. Some punches don't need a punchline.
What the marker says
Clayco No. 1 Woodruff-Putnam, 1628 feet. Here flowed oil April 1, 1911, opening one of the world's greatest oil fields. Crew - Hal Hughes, Sam Turnbo, S. C. "Dad" Massengill, Lamar Weathersby, Clabe Moody, Richard Harper, Ed Beeler, A. F. Dennison, R. T. Craig.