DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's a story worth telling slow. There's a name carved into the West Texas landscape out in Upton County, and that name is Benedum. The Texas Railroad Commission put it there in 1950, hanging it on a field in honor of one Michael Late Benedum — known to just about everybody who ever smelled crude oil as Mike Benedum, born in 1869, gone in 1959, and in between those two years he devoted sixty-nine of his ninety on this earth to the oil business.
Sixty-nine years. The man didn't dabble. He committed.
And somewhere along the way the world handed him a title that stuck like tar to boot leather: the great wildcatter. His work began in 1890. Not in Texas, mind you — the marker wants you to know this man ranged wide.
He teamed up with a partner, Joe C. Trees, and together they went looking for oil the way some men go looking for trouble — enthusiastically, and in a lot of different places. Illinois.
West Virginia. Louisiana, where they found the great Caddo field. Down into Mexico, the Tuxpan.
Further still, to Colombia in South America, a field called de Mares. The man's boots were dusty from about four continents before he ever drove a stake in Texas ground. But Texas — Texas is where the story really opens up.
In Texas, Benedum and Trees had a hand in the Desdemona, Big Lake, Yates, East White Point, Susan Peak, and Benavides. That is not a short list. That is a career by itself, and it was just part of a career.
Now, out of all of those, pay attention to Big Lake. The discovery of the Big Lake Field in 1923 happened on University of Texas land, and what it tapped was the great wealth of the Permian Basin — a basin that had cracked open to the world starting in 1920 with what the marker describes, with admirable honesty, as a small discovery. Small beginning.
What followed was not small. Now, the field that carries Benedum's name — the Benedum field itself — that story starts on January 4, 1948, when a well called Alford No. 1 was completed at a depth of twelve thousand and eleven feet. Slick-Urschel Oil Company brought it in, under a partnership agreement.
That well was the original in the Benedum field, though the field was later reclassified as a gas field. And eventually, the field was joined by something else: the dedication of the Benedum townsite, which the marker credits as a benefit to the field. Here's where the tall tale gets its real weight, though.
Mike Benedum, the great wildcatter, wasn't just building a personal fortune — and he did build one, the marker says fortune and fame both. He was punching holes into ground that would eventually fill up one of the world's large constitutional permanent university funds. The oil and gas revenues flowing out of that Permian Basin work help give Texas the largest permanent public school fund in the world.
The largest. In the world. So the next time you roll through Upton County and you see that name on the land — Benedum — you'll know it belongs to a man born in 1869 who spent sixty-nine years wildcatting across half the globe, struck it big from Louisiana to Colombia to the heart of West Texas, and left behind a legacy that's still paying for schoolchildren's futures today.
Not bad for a man they just called the great wildcatter.
What the marker says
Field named in 1950 by Texas Railroad Commission in honor of Michael Late (Mike) Benedum, 1869-1959, who devoted 69 of his 90 years to the oil business, and won fortune and fame as "the great wildcatter". His work began in 1890. With a partner, Joe C. Trees, he discovered or developed oil fields in Illinois, West Virginia, Louisiana (the great Caddo field); the Tuxpan in Mexico; de Mares in Colombia, South America; and in Texas the Desdemona, Big Lake, Yates, East White Point, Susan Peak and Benavides. Discovery of Big Lake Field ( 1923 ) on University of Texas land tapped the great wealth of the Permian Basin, which opened in 1920 with a small discovery. Alford No. 1, original well in Benedum field (later reclassified as a gas field), was completed Jan. 4, 1948, at depth of 12,011 feet by Slick-Urschel Oil Co., under a partnership agreement. The field later benefited by dedication of Benedum townside. The "great wildcatter" was an oil pioneer whose work enriched one of the world's large constitutional permanent university funds. Revenues from oil and gas operations give Texas the largest permanent public school fund in the world.