Coleman Ranch Field Discovery Well

Duane's take

Well, I'm gonna tell you this one just the way the marker lays it out, so settle in. Out here in Mitchell County, the ground holds a story that starts not with a gusher, but with something a whole lot quieter. And sometimes the quiet ones matter most.

It was 1920 when the Westbrook Field T&P No. 1 oil well came in, and just like that, commercial oil production in the Permian Basin had its beginning. That well kicked open a door, and folks came rushing through it. In that rush, somebody drilled on a piece of land owned by a man named Dr.

Preston C. Coleman. Physician, civic leader, promoter of early oil development right here in Mitchell County.

The well that bore his name, the P.C. Coleman No. 1, was completed in January of 1923. And here's the thing about this well.

It wasn't much to look at on paper. Slow producer. Not exactly the stuff of legend.

They even shot it with nitroglycerin to try and coax a little more out of it, and that helped, for a while. But when the excitement died down, somebody capped it off with a cedar stump and walked away. A cedar stump.

On an oil well. Out in West Texas. Now enter Frank Kelley, landman for the Magnolia Oil Company.

He shows up in 1925, pulls that cedar stump off, and the well starts flowing again. Give the man credit for trying. But when occasional pumping kept turning up only small amounts of oil, Magnolia made the call and abandoned the well entirely in 1940.

Not a significant producer. That's the honest verdict. But here's where this story earns its keep.

That well, stubborn and modest as it was, confirmed something important. It confirmed the possibility of further oil development on the Eastern Shelf of the Permian Basin. Sometimes a well doesn't have to be great to be right.

And the land had one more thing to say. In 1946, large quantities of oil were found southwest of that discovery well, out on former public school land that had been filed on all the way back in 1900 by Dr. Coleman's son Walter.

The old doctor had been gone, but his family's name was still on the land when the real treasure finally showed itself. Today, all that marks the spot is a concrete well cap sitting on a concrete base. No gusher.

No derrick. Just a cap in the ground and a marker standing nearby to remind anyone who stops that this quiet, slow, sometimes-capped-with-a-cedar-stump well was the one that said: keep looking. The Permian Basin has got more to give.

And it did.

What the marker says

(2/3 miles southwest) Completion of the Westbrook Field T&P No. 1 oil well in 1920 signaled the beginning of commercial oil production in the Permian Basin. In the rush of oil activity that followed, the P.C. Coleman No. 1 Well was drilled on land owned by Dr. Preston C. Coleman, physician, civic leader and promoter of early oil development in Mitchell County. Completed in January 1923, the well was a slow producer. After nitroglycerine was used to temporarily increase production, the well was capped with a cedar stump. Frank Kelley, landman for the Magnolia Oil Co., removed the stump in 1925, and the well began flowing again. When occasional pumping yielded only small amounts of oil, Magnolia abandoned it in 1940. Although not a significant producer, the P.C. Coleman No. 1 Well confirmed the possibility of further oil development on the Eastern Shelf of the Permian Basin. In 1946, large quantities of oil were found southwest of the discovery well on former public school land filed on in 1900 by Dr. Coleman's son Walter. Marked today only by a concrete well cap on a concrete base, the site of the Coleman Ranch Field Discovery Well serves as a reminder of the early days of oil production in the Permian Basin. (1983)