DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, standing out on Scurry County's Sharon Ridge Field. Now, 1.4 miles south of where you're sitting right now, there is a well. Not just any well — the first producing oil well in Scurry County, and the one that cracked open a major West Texas petroleum area.
That well is the J. J. Moore No. 1, and the story of how it came to be is the kind of thing you'd swear somebody made up around a campfire.
It started in February of 1923. E. I.
Thompson — folks called him Tommy — along with W. W. Lechner and E.
E. Fogelson, who went by Buddy, were working under the banner of Loutex Corp. W.
A. Reiter located the well. Leon English served as the field geologist.
And then you had the drillers themselves: Jesse Thomas, Begossa Murphy, Tom Mann, Charlie Dodson, and Sim Taylor. The tool dresser was a man named James O. Jarmon, and here's a detail the marker makes a point of telling you — Jarmon was the only man working that well from top to bottom.
Every other fella came and went. Jarmon stayed. Now out on that lease, the landowner's young sons — Pat and Mike Moore — were helping fire the steam roller.
Kids getting their hands dirty on history. Didn't know it yet, but they were. The drilling ran from February all the way to October of 1923.
Eight months of turning that bit down into West Texas earth. And somewhere on the way to 3,575 feet, the drill struck something nobody quite expected. The marker calls it a pressurized reservoir of cold air.
Nitrogen and helium. Unique in Texas at that time. That reservoir blew mud and water sixty feet above the wellhead.
Sixty feet. That is not a leak. That is the earth making a declaration.
But here's where the story gets genuinely clever rather than just dramatic. Once they harnessed that pressurized cold air, it replaced steam to operate the drilling itself. And — and this is the part I love — it also refrigerated their food and water.
Eight months into a West Texas drilling operation, and the well started keeping their lunch cold. The ground was working for them in ways they never asked for. The J.
J. Moore No. 1 was completed to 3,575 feet, then plugged back to 1,800 feet in the San Andres formation. And by the time this marker was placed in 1966, it had yielded over 500,000 barrels of oil — and was still producing.
Now, you might think a well like that would have set off a stampede. And eventually it did. But not right away.
Several dusters — dry holes, nothing — were drilled nearby in 1924. And through the twenties, low prices discouraged further exploration. The Sharon Ridge Field just sat there, patient as the formation itself, waiting.
Eventually, though, over 2,200 wells were brought in right here in this field. And then in 1948, deep wells began to tap the canyon reef in Scurry County. By the time the marker was written, Scurry County had over 4,000 oil wells.
All of it traces back to one well, drilled over eight months in 1923, where a pressurized pocket of cold air announced itself by shooting mud sixty feet into the sky — and then got put to work keeping a crew's water cold while they finished the job. The J. J.
Moore No. 1. Still producing. Some things just keep giving.
What the marker says
(1.4 miles south) First producing oil well in Scurry County; opened a major West Texas petroleum area. Drilled February to October 1923 by E. I. (Tommy) Thompson, W. W. Lechner and E. E. (Buddy) Fogelson of Loutex Corp., W. A. Reiter located the well. Leon English was field geologist. Drillers were Jesse Thomas, Begossa Murphy, Tom Mann, Charlie Dodson, Sim Taylor. The tool dresser, James O. Jarmon, was the only man working the well from top to bottom. Pat and Mike Moore, the young sons of the landowner, helped to fire the steam roller. The drill struck a pressurized reservoir of "cold air" (nitrogen and helium) unique in Texas at that time. It blew mud and water 60 feet above the well head. Soon harnessed, it replaced steam to operate the drilling. It also refrigerated food and water. Completed to 3575 feet and plugged back to 1800 feet in the San Andres formation, the J. J. Moore No. 1 has yielded over 500,000 barrels of oil; is still producing. Several "dusters" were drilled nearby in 1924. Exploration was further discouraged in the 20s by low prices; eventually, however, here in the Sharon Ridge Field over 2200 wells have been brought in. In 1948 deep wells began to tap the canyon reef in Scurry; the county now has over 4,000 oil wells. (1966)