DUANE
Duane's take
Now, this one comes straight from the official marker — let me tell it to you the way it deserves to be told. Out here in Ector County, there's a rig standing that has earned its place in the West Texas sun. Not a replica dreamed up from scratch, mind you — this machine was reconstructed from parts of several rigs actually used at Big Lake, Reagan County.
Real iron, real cable, real history. And the story those parts carry goes back further than most folks realize. Before the Cable Tool Rig, drillers were working with something called the spring pole method.
That's how America's earlier oil fields got their start. But the spring pole had its limits, and limits don't sit well with oil country. So along came the Cable Tool Rig, and the whole game changed.
Here's how it worked. You suspend a bit on a steel drilling cable. You drop that bit into the hole.
The impact breaks up the formation — just pure, percussive force, over and over again. Then a bail comes down and clears out the broken pieces. Simple in principle.
Powerful in practice. And critically, it could go deeper. Deeper penetration, the marker tells us, was exactly what the southwest demanded.
Texas first saw the Cable Tool Rig in 1866 — though up north, some use of cable tools had been made as far back as around 1840. Texas came to it later, but Texas, being Texas, ran with it. And while we're talking about what Texas contributed to the oil industry, let's not breeze past this list, because it is something.
Texas gave the southwestern oil industry the first lease. The first oil pipeline. The first wooden and iron storage tanks.
The first iron drums for transporting crude oil. And the first use of the augur principle — the very principle later employed in rotary rigs. That's not a footnote.
That's a foundation. But now — now we come to the moment this particular rig points toward like a compass needle finding north. May 1923.
Big Lake, Reagan County. A well called the No. 1 Santa Rita blew in. The first well in the first major oil field in the Permian Basin.
And the tool that brought it in? The Cable Tool Rig. The very kind of machine standing before you, pieced together from the actual rigs that were there.
The Cable Tool Rig brought in the first important wells of the Permian Basin. All of that — the fields, the fortunes, the West Texas oil country as we know it — came up through that cable, through that bit, through that bail, one dropped hole at a time. To the Cable Tool Rig, and to the men who used it, goes the credit.
The marker says so. And out here in the Permian Basin, that credit is worth every drop.
What the marker says
Equipment that replaced the spring pole drilling method used in America's earlier oil fields. The Cable Tool Rig used a bit suspended on a steel drilling cable. The bit is dropped in the hole and the impact breaks up the formation. The broken pieces are removed by a bail. This method made possible the deeper penetration so necessary in the southwest. The Cable Tool Rig was introduced in Texas in 1866. (some use of Cable Tools had been made around 1840 in the north.) Texas gave the southwestern oil industry the first lease, the first oil pipe line, the first wooden and iron storage tanks, the first iron drums for transporting crude oil and first use of the augur principle later employed in rotary rigs. The Cable Tool Rig brought in the first important wells of the permian basin. This Rig was reconstructed from parts of several Rig was reconstructed from parts of several rigs actually used at big lake, Regan county, where the No. 1 Santa Rita blew in during may 1923 as the first well in the first major oil field in the permian basin. To the cable tool rig and the men who used it goes credit for the great development in the permian basin.