DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Town of Texon, out here in Reagan County. Now, if you'd passed through this stretch of West Texas back in the early days, you might've turned your horse around and kept right on riding. Early travelers along the historic trails in this area found the region arid and inhospitable — and that's the marker's word, inhospitable, which is a polite way of saying the land had opinions about visitors.
In 1876, these lands were given to the University of Texas, and for a good while after that, they were leased out to cattlemen. The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railroad came through and built its line here in 1911, but the marker is careful to note it did little local hauling. A railroad that doesn't haul much is a railroad making a quiet point about a place.
But then — as tends to happen in Texas whenever someone decides to go looking — everything changed underground. Frank Pickrell and Haymon Krupp, of the Texon Oil and Land Company, decided to drill. Their driller, Carl Cromwell, is the man who actually turned that decision into history.
On May 28, 1923, Cromwell brought in Santa Rita No. 1 — the first gusher in the Permian Basin. Let that land for a moment. The first gusher in the entire Permian Basin.
Everything you know about West Texas oil traces back to that date, to that well, to that man. The very next year, in 1924, Big Lake Oil Company founded Texon — the first company town in the Permian Basin. Levi Smith, president of the firm, personally planned and supervised the building of the town.
Ted Williams served as city manager for the company. And what they built out here in what had been arid and inhospitable country was, by any measure, a real town. Stores, shops, a school, a physician, a dentist, a hospital, a theater, a park, and a baseball team well-known enough to get its own mention on the marker.
Recreation facilities of all kinds. The post office opened in 1926. At its peak, as many as two thousand people lived in Texon — though the boosters, as boosters do, claimed up to ten thousand.
Whether you take the conservative number or the enthusiastic one, those people were running drilling operations, a gasoline plant, an oil treating plant, and plenty more besides. Then the corporate wheels started turning, the way they do. Plymouth Oil Company absorbed Big Lake Oil Company.
Then sold out to Marathon Oil Company. And in 1962, the company town was closed. The land that early travelers once wrote off as having nothing to offer had, for a few remarkable decades, offered quite a lot.
The first gusher in the Permian Basin, the first company town in the Permian Basin, a baseball team, a hospital, a theater — and then silence. Out here in Reagan County, that's the whole story, start to finish, in one marker.
What the marker says
Early travelers along many historic trails in this area found the region arid and inhospitable. Given (1876) to the University of Texas, the lands around this marker were leased to cattlemen. The Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railroad built its line here in 1911, but did little local hauling. Development came after Frank Pickrell and Haymon Krupp of Texon Oil and Land Company drilled for oil. Their driller, Carl Cromwell, brought in Santa Rita No. 1, the first gusher in the Permian Basin, on May 28, 1923. Texon, first company town in the Permian Basin, was founded in 1924 by Big Lake Oil Company. Levi Smith, president of the firm, planned and supervised building of the town, and Ted Williams served as city manager for the company. Texon had stores, shops, a school, a physician, a dentist, a hospital, a theater, a park, a well-known baseball team, and many facilities for recreation. The post office opened in 1926. As many as 2,000 people lived here -- boosters claimed up to 10,000 -- manning the drilling, a gasoline plant, an oil treating plant, and other operations. Plymouth Oil Company absorbed Big Lake Oil Company, then sold out to Marathon Oil Company. The company town was closed in 1962.