DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, before we talk about boom times and gushing oil, you've got to understand what was sitting on this land before any of that. Drought had wrung the earth dry up here in Eastland County.
Boll weevils had torn through the cotton fields like they had a personal grudge. Ranchers, farmers, businessmen — they were all just trying to hang on, surviving an economic slump that didn't seem to have a bottom. Then came a flicker of hope.
The Texas and Pacific Coal Company struck oil in 1915 — about ten miles east of Ranger, at a depth of one thousand feet. You can imagine what that did to people who were desperate. Suddenly, expectations started mountin'.
Plans got made. Dreams got dusted off. And then... dry holes.
One after another, subsequent test-drillings came up with nothing. The flicker went out. Now, this is the part of the story where most tales would end.
But desperate local leaders weren't finished. They went to Thurber — just nearby — and they sought out a man named William Knox Gordon, general manager of the Texas and Pacific Coal Company. Gordon had a theory that some geologists flat out disagreed with.
He believed oil lay much deeper within the earth than anyone had drilled before. Deeper than the dry holes. Deeper than the thousand-foot strike.
He was thinking thirty-five hundred feet. Gordon agreed to drill to that depth. And on July 2, 1917, a contractor by the name of Warren Wagner put a bit in the ground right here — on J.H.
McCleskey's farm. Now you've got to let that sit a moment. A worn-out farming community.
A general manager betting against the geologists. A drill going down, down, down into the earth on somebody's farm. Weeks passing.
Then months. October 17, 1917. The drill is at three thousand, four hundred and thirty-two feet — just sixty-eight feet shy of Gordon's target.
And McCleskey Well No. 1 hit pay sand. It didn't just produce. It roared in.
Estimated daily flow: sixteen hundred barrels of oil. Sixteen hundred barrels a day coming out of a farm in Eastland County. What followed was what the marker calls the much-heralded, wild, and prolific Ranger oil boom — and it gave Ranger a reputation that crossed oceans.
International fame, the marker says. Because that oil didn't just change a town. The story went that Ranger's oil wiped out critical shortages during World War I, allowing the Allies to, and I'm quoting here, float to victory on a wave of oil.
The well itself was plugged on May 18, 1920. Its work was done. Some holes in the ground just hold dirt.
This one held the fate of a community, the outcome of a world war, and a phrase worth remembering — a wave of oil, rolling all the way from a farm in Eastland County to the shores of history.
What the marker says
The Texas and Pacific Coal Company struck oil at 1,000 feet about 10 miles east of Ranger in 1915. This event raised the hopes of area ranchers, farmers, and businessmen struggling to survive an economic slump brought on by severe drought and boll weevil-ravaged cotton fields. Oil expectations mounted then subsided when subsequent test-drillings turned up dry holes. Desperate local leaders sought out Texas and Pacific Coal Company general manager William Knox Gordon in nearby Thurber to help them continue the search for oil. Contrary to the conclusions of some geologists, Gordon believed oil lay much deeper within the earth than the depths reached by previous test drillings. Gordon agreed to drill to a depth of 3,500 feet and on July 2, 1917, contractor Warren Wagner began drilling here on J.H. McCleskey's farm. On October 17, 1917, at a depth of 3,432 feet, McCleskey Well No. 1 hit pay sand and roared in with an estimated daily flow of 1,600 barrels of oil. The well was plugged on May 18, 1920. J.H. McCleskey Well No. 1 sparked the much-heralded, wild, and prolific Ranger oil boom that gained Ranger international fame as the town whose oil wiped out critical oil shortages during World War I, allowing the Allies to "float to victory on a wave of oil." (1995)