DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. One mile east of where you're sitting right now, on the east slope of John Ray Butte, is where the whole thing started. The discovery well of what would become the largest known gas field in the world — the Panhandle-Hugoton Gas Field — and it began with a geologist who got there early.
Dr. Charles N. Gould, working for the United States Geological Survey, discovered the geological structure way back in 1905.
He found something. Sat on that knowledge, kept working, and then in 1917 he located the well himself. That's a patient man.
Or a thorough one. Probably both. The well was called the Hapgood, Masterson No. 1, and they broke ground on December 1st, 1917.
Thirteen months later — December 7th, 1918 — it came in complete, at a depth of two thousand six hundred and five feet, at a cost of seventy thousand dollars. And what did it give back? About five million cubic feet of gas.
Per day. Now let that number sit for a second. Five million cubic feet.
Every single day. That one well, that one hole in the east slope of John Ray Butte, initiated the development of the entire Panhandle gas field and the Panhandle oil fields besides. The field that grew out of that discovery now stretches two hundred and seventy-five miles, running from the Texas Panhandle north up into Kansas, and in places it runs more than ninety miles wide.
Pipelines from this field carry gas to Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit — most of the cities and towns across the mid-west. Lines run all the way to Los Angeles and up and down the west coast.
All of it traces back to one geological structure a man named Gould noticed in 1905, and a well he put in the ground in 1917. Right here. One mile that way.
Under that butte.
What the marker says
The discovery well in the vast Panhandle-Hugoton Gas Field, largest known gas field in the world, is located one mile east of this point on the east slope of John Ray Butte. The geological structure was discovered by Dr. Charles N. Gould in 1905 while in the employ of the United States Geological Survey, and the well was located by him in 1917. This well, the Hapgood, Masterson No. 1, was started December 1, 1917, and completed at a cost of $70,000 as a gas well December 7, 1918, at a depth of 2605 feet. It produced about 5,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day. This discovery initiated the development of this great gas field and of the Panhandle oil fields. The gas field now extends 275 miles from the Texas Panhandle north into Kansas, with a width in places of more than 90 miles. Pipelines from this field transmit gas to Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, and to most of the cities and towns of the mid-west. Lines also carry gas to Los Angeles and to other cities and towns on the west coast. (1965)