DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Crockett County's first producing oil well — so hold on, because this one starts slow and ends with two thousand wells in the ground. Now, it's 1923, and a Fort Worth publisher and printer by the name of Chester R. Bunker has got oil on his mind.
Bunker was New York-born, a World War I veteran, and he owned a company called World Oil Co. And World Oil Co. had its eyes set on the L. P.
Powell Ranch out here in Crockett County — nine thousand, two hundred and sixty acres of what was, up to that point, primarily ranching land. That's it. Cattle country.
Wide, quiet, and going about its business. Bunker sent his people in to start drilling. The superintendent on the job was a man named Mickey Green, and working right alongside him was the tool pusher — a fella the marker knows only as Dangerous Dan.
Just Dangerous Dan. No last name offered, none needed apparently. You get a nickname like that, maybe you let it do the talking.
Now, work progressed slowly. And the marker is honest about why: money. The availability of it, specifically.
This was a wildcat operation — meaning nobody knew for certain what was down there — and wildcatting has never been a guaranteed investment. So they drilled when they could, and they waited when they couldn't, and the whole thing crept along for the better part of two years. Then came the spring of 1925.
Ten miles northwest of where you're standing — or sitting, or driving — they hit it. Two thousand, six hundred and forty-seven feet down, the first well came in. Twenty-five barrels of oil a day started flowing up out of the Powell Ranch, and just like that, Crockett County was in a different business.
The strike opened up what was called the world pool — more commonly known as the Powell Field — and that field is still yielding oil. Eventually, one hundred and eighty wells were drilled on that ranch by a number of companies. One hundred and eighty wells on one man's land.
Now, Chester Bunker — the man who started all of it — sold his rights to Humble and Marland Oil Co. after the strike. He got his, and he moved on. But Powell's heirs?
They still own the land. That ranch didn't go anywhere. And Powell No. 1 — that very first well, the one Dangerous Dan and Mickey Green nursed down to two thousand six hundred and forty-seven feet — has produced continuously since 1925.
By the time this marker was written, it was under the operation of Petro-Lewis and still yielding ten barrels a day. Not the gusher it once was, maybe, but still going. Still going.
The next important strike in the county came in 1938, out in the Crockett Field. And by the time the marker was put down, there were over two thousand producing oil and gas wells in Crockett County. Two thousand wells — all of it tracing back to one wildcat operation, one slow-moving drill, one man known only as Dangerous Dan, and a spring morning in 1925 when the ground finally said yes.
What the marker says
In 1923 World Oil Co., owned by Chester R. Bunker, Ft. Worth publisher and printer, began drilling on the L. P. Powell Ranch. Work progressed slowly, depending on the availability of money, under the direction of superintendent Mickey Green and the tool pusher known only as "Dangerous Dan." The wildcat operation proved successful in the spring of 1925, when the first well (10 mi. northwest) came in at a depth of 2647 feet and began producing 25 barrels of oil a day. The strike opened up the world pool, more commonly known as the Powell Field, which is still yielding oil. Eventually 180 wells were drilled by a number of companies on Powell's 9260-acre ranch. Bunker, a New York-born World War I veteran, sold his rights to Humble and Marland Oil Co. after the strike, but Powell's heirs still own the land. Powell No. 1 has produced continuously since 1925 and now, under the operation of Petro-Lewis, yields 10 barrels a day. Powell No. 1 was the beginning of a vital new industry for Crockett County, before 1925 primarily a ranching area. The next important strike occurred in the Crockett Field in 1938. There are currently over 2000 producing oil and gas wells in the county.