DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to give it its due. Now settle in, because this one starts with a stubborn old man and ends up changing the world. C.
M. Joiner — everybody called him Dad — was a seventy-year-old Oklahoman with a conviction most folks would've called a fool's errand. For years, he believed there was oil sitting under Rusk County, Texas.
The kind of belief that doesn't ask for proof. The kind that costs you everything before it pays you back. His driller was E.
C. Laster, and the crew was Dennis May, Dave Cherry, Glenn Pool, Jim Lambert, and Dave Hughes — names worth remembering, because these men worked in conditions that would've sent a lesser outfit home. Dad Joiner had tried twice before this well.
First attempt, jammed bit. Second attempt, drill pipe stuck cold. Two swings, two misses.
Lesser men walk away after the second one. But the rig got skidded three hundred feet down the slope, and when someone asked about the new spot, Laster just shrugged and said, quote, this is as good a place as any. Famous last words.
Famous first words. On May 8, 1929, Joiner Number Three Daisy Bradford was spudded in. Now, the equipment they were working with — let's just let that settle for a second.
An old rotary rig. Powered by a single-cylinder engine. One forty-five horsepower boiler.
And one old cotton gin boiler fired with soggy oak and pine chunks, kept alive by a roustabout named Dan Tanner who deserves a monument of his own. The depression was on. Money was scarce as shade in August.
The crew often went without pay. Joiner himself sacrificed much of his ten-thousand-acre block of leases just to keep things moving. Finally — and that word finally is doing a lot of heavy lifting here — on September 5, 1930, a drill stem logged at three thousand five hundred and thirty-six feet down into the Woodbine Formation showed oil.
They had to bring in a better rig to finish the job. Then, on October 3, 1930, the well blew in. Oil went over the crown block.
And just like that, the boom was on. Cars bumper to bumper on every access road. Derricks rising in all directions like the county itself was reaching for the sky.
In its first thirty years, this field produced more than three and a half billion barrels of oil. It now covers some two hundred square miles — the largest oil field in the world. A seventy-year-old Oklahoman with a belief nobody shared, a crew that went without pay, and one cotton gin boiler burning soggy wood.
That's what it took.
What the marker says
East Texas Oil Field Discovery Well. Discovery genius was C. M. (Dad) Joiner, 70-year-old Oklahoman who for years believed there was oil in Rusk County. Driller was E. C. Laster. Crew: Dennis May, Dave Cherry, Glenn Pool, Jim Lambert and Dave Hughes. Joiner's 2 early efforts failed-- one with a jammed bit, one with the drill pipe stuck. The rig was next skidded 300' down slope. "This is as good a place as any," said Laster. Then on May 8, 1929, Joiner No. 3 Daisy Bradford was spudded in. Equipment consisted of an old rotary rig powered by a single-cylinder engine; one 45 hp boiler; one old cotton gin boiler fired with soggy oak and pine chunks by roustabout Dan Tanner. The depression was on, and money scarce. The crew often went without pay. Joiner sacrificed much of his 10,000 acre block of leases. Finally, on Sept. 5, 1930, a drill stem logged at 3536' into the Woodbine Formation showed oil. A better rig had to be brought in. On Oct. 3, 1930, the well blew in and oil went over the crown block. The boom was on. Cars were bumper-to-bumper on all access roads. Derricks rose in all directions. In its first 30 years, this great field produced more than 3.5 billion barrels of oil. It now covers some 200 square miles-- the largest in the world.