DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word. Somewhere out in Winkler County, sitting like a monument to a rougher era, stands a wooden oil derrick — and not just any wooden oil derrick. This one holds the distinction of being the last wooden oil derrick in the United States to retire from daily use.
Let that sink in for a second. While the rest of the country had long since moved on, this rig kept on working. That's a Texas kind of stubborn right there.
It drilled the Moorhead Number One well on the Chapman-McAlvane lease, over in Loving County. And the equipment it carries — those bull wheels and rig irons — they're of a type that nobody's made since the nineteen twenties. You couldn't order replacement parts from a catalog.
The catalog didn't exist anymore. And yet, in its day, this rig made deep drilling possible. Not just possible — it did it.
For years, the pump ran on steam. Steam. Then came nineteen forty-two, and a four-cylinder gasoline engine took over the job of runnin' the Yo-Yo wheels and the walking beam.
The rig kept going. Finally, in nineteen sixty-six, the well was put on an electric pump, and that old wooden derrick's daily working life came to a close. Now, here's where the story gets a little legendary.
R. O. Moorhead gave the rig to the city of Kermit — as a Permian Basin oil empire history exhibit.
And when it came time to move it to this site, thirty-five miles away, somebody made a decision. They were not going to dismantle it. They moved that entire rig, intact, thirty-five miles, without taking it apart.
The last wooden oil derrick in the country, still standing, still whole — right here where you can see it.
What the marker says
Last wooden oil derrick in U.S. to retire from daily use. Drilled Moorhead No. 1 well on Chapman-McAlvane lease, Loving County. Has bull wheels and rig irons of type not made since 1920s. However, in its day it made deep drilling possible. Pump was steam-driven until 1942, when 4-cylinder gasoline engine began to run the "Yo-Yo" wheels and walking beam. Well was put on electric pump, 1966. Given by R. O. Moorhead to city of Kermit, as a Permian Basin oil empire history exhibit, rig was moved 35 miles to this site without being dismantled. (1966)