DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, and friend, this one's worth pulling over for. November 9th, 1925. A wildcat well — they called her No. 1 H.R.
Clay — gets drilled out here by a man named Fred Hyer on Clay's land. Now, wildcatting is exactly what it sounds like: you're punching holes in ground nobody else has bothered with, betting on a hunch, hoping the earth has something to say back to you. Most times, she doesn't.
But this time — at 1,508 feet down — she spoke up real clear. Oil. The well began pumping, and just like that, what everybody had written off as worthless territory started looking a whole lot different.
Word travels fast when there's money in the ground. Oil land speculators developed a great interest in this formerly worthless territory — and I love that the marker puts worthless right in quotation marks, like the land itself deserved a little vindication. Other wildcatters flocked to the area.
And out of all that effort, all that drilling and risk and speculation, the Permian Basin got developed — one of the richest oil repositories in the entire state of Texas. Since 1925, Howard County alone has produced more than 300 million barrels. Three hundred million.
All of it tracing back to one wildcat well, one man named Fred Hyer, and 1,508 feet of faith in west Texas dirt.
What the marker says
On Nov. 9, 1925, this wildcat well "No. 1 H.R. Clay" drilled by Fred Hyer, began pumping oil in a venture that hinted at vast oil resources in west Texas. The well on Clay's land hit pay dirt at 1,508 feet. Soon oil land speculators developed a great interest in this formerly "worthless" territory and other wildcatters flocked to the area. As a result of efforts here, the Permian Basin--one of the richest oil repositories in the state--was developed. Since 1925 Howard County has produced more than 300 million barrels. (1969)