DUANE
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Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, this story started with a hint, and ended with a roar. Thirty years before the first producing gas well was ever drilled in McMullen County, folks sinking ordinary water wells kept pulling up something unexpected: traces of salt water, sulphur, gas, and oil. The ground was whispering, you might say.
For years, wildcat drillers went to work trying to make something of it, with only moderate success. The earth wasn't ready to give up its secrets just yet. Then came 1908.
A well on Charles Byrne's land began to blow warm sulphur water and gas a hundred and twenty feet into the air; every eight days, regular as a clock that doesn't care what you think about it. That kind of show tends to arouse interest, and it did. Byrne, a promoter by nature and by calling, decided the next step was to find men with money.
So he armed himself with two things: a picture of that gusher and a bottle of oil pulled right from the area. With those in hand, he went lookin' for capitalists. He found them.
W.M. "Bee" Stephenson, his sons Light and Donald, and others (Byrne had their attention). And in 1917 and into 1918, they drilled on the Tom Brown Tract. At 816 feet, it blew in.
Sixty-two million cubic feet of natural gas. Per day. Now let that number sit with you for just a moment.
Sixty-two million cubic feet. A day. But here's the part that keeps the story honest: that well spewed out of control for three full months.
The subsurface pressure was intense, and the equipment on hand just wasn't equal to what the earth had been holdin' back. Three months of raw, unchecked power before they got a handle on it. After other producers were drilled, W.M.
Stephenson arranged something that would change the shape of the whole region. In 1922, he piped that gas to San Antonio; sixty-eight miles north. Joining the enterprise was H.A.
Pagenkopf, an oil man out of Wichita Falls. And just like that, petroleum took a leading role in the economy of McMullen County. All of it traced back to a water well pulling up something funny, and one promoter with a photograph and a bottle of oil who refused to let the ground keep its secrets.
What the marker says
Thirty years before the first producing gas well was drilled in this county, traces of salt water, sulphur, gas, and oil in water wells gave hints of the presence of petroleum here. For years wildcat drilling went on, but with only moderate success. Then in 1908, a well on Charles Byrne's land began to blow warm sulphur water and gas 120 feet into the air every 8 days, arousing much interest. After this discovery, Byrne, a promoter, set out to locate capitalists to develop his petroleum deposits. Armed with a picture of the gusher and a bottle of area oil, he attracted the attention of W.M. "Bee" Stephenson, his sons Light and Donald, and others. The well they drilled here in 1917-1918, on the Tom Brown Tract, blew in at 816 feet with 62,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas a day, but for 3 months it spewed out of control because of the intense subsurface pressure and inadequate equipment. After other producers were drilled, W.M. Stephenson arranged to pipe gas to San Antonio, 68 miles north, in 1922. Among those joining this enterprise was H.A. Pagenkopf, Wichita Falls oil man. Thus petroleum took a leading role in the economy of McMullen County. 1970