Midland County's First Producing Oil Well

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, you'd think a county called Midland, sitting right in the heart of the Permian Basin, would've been pumping oil since the beginning of time. But that's not quite how it went.

See, the Permian Basin had been producing since the nineteen twenties, and that discovery did something remarkable. It helped carry the whole area through the Great Depression, and oil and gas companies set up their headquarters right there in Midland. But Midland County itself, the ground beneath your feet if you're standing near this marker, that ground didn't give up a single producing well until the nineteen forties.

Not one. All that oil money flowing around the region, and the county seat of it all was still waiting its turn. Now, a geologist named H.L.

Beckman had something to say about that. He worked alongside the Rowan Drilling Company, and together they staked out a well for Humble Oil and Refining Company. They called it No. 1 Mrs.

O.P. Buchanan Well, and they put it right here at this site. On September 14, 1944, they spudded it.

That's the moment the drill bit first bites into the earth, and this one kept biting. Down and down it went. They completed the well on November 6, 1945, at a total depth of twelve thousand five hundred and seventy four feet.

That is a long way down into the dark. And when it came up, it came up talking. Three hundred and thirty two barrels of oil in twenty nine hours.

Midland County's first producing oil well, right here, after all that waiting. Of course, the earth doesn't give forever. On August 1, 1947, the well was plugged.

The story was over almost as soon as it began. But first, just once, it delivered.

What the marker says

The discovery of oil in the Permian Basin during the 1920s helped sustain the area economy during the Great Depression, and many oil and gas companies established headquarters in Midland. Not until the 1940s, though, did Midland County begin seeing its own productive oil wells. Geologist H.L. Beckman worked with the Rowan Drilling Company to stake out Humble Oil and Refining Company's No. 1 Mrs. O.P. Buchanan Well at this site. They spudded the well on September 14, 1944 and completed in on November 6, 1945 at a total depth of 12,574 feet. The well produced 332 barrels of oil in 29 hours and became Midland County's first producing oil well. It was plugged on August 1, 1947. (1966, 2005)