DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice that carries it down the road. Now, it started quiet enough, the way most big things do. Out in Shackelford County, sometime around 1908, folks drawing water from their wells started noticing something they hadn't bargained for — oil and gas, turning up right there in the water.
Word like that travels. And it traveled all the way to the Texas Company, which you might know better by its later name, Texaco, Inc. By June of 1909, the Texas Company was already moving — leasing up large tracts of land in the area.
They ran a surface geological survey, sized up the ground, and then brought in a contractor by the name of F. J. Winston.
Winston put up a wooden derrick on a prospective location out on the Jim Cottle Ranch — cable tools, steam engine, the whole outfit. And on September 23, 1909, drilling operations began. Now here's where the story gets its character.
Because this was not a quick, clean, triumphant bore straight into glory. Equipment breakdowns came frequent, and sometimes they came lengthy. The kind of delays that test a man's patience and a company's ledger both.
Thirteen months those tools turned — thirteen months of fits and starts and whatever West Texas threw at them. And then, on November 9, 1910, at a depth of two thousand six hundred and sixty feet, the Cottle No. 1 struck natural gas. That well had a name before it had a legacy, but the legacy came fast.
That discovery opened up what became known as the Moran field — the first commercial gas well completed in this vast West Texas area. Come the spring of 1911, gas was piped right into the town of Moran for residential and business use. People lit their homes with it.
Businesses ran on it. And then it kept spreading. Within two years — by 1913 — the cities of Albany, Cisco, and Abilene were supplied with natural gas for the very first time.
Three cities, first time, all of it traceable back to that wooden derrick on the Jim Cottle Ranch. By October of 1913, with five producing gas wells operating, the Moran field had earned recognition as one of the most important sources of fossil fuels in all of Texas. Not just in the county.
Not just in West Texas. In Texas. The Cottle No. 1 itself was plugged years ago — that part of the story is finished.
But the Moran field? It continues to be an economic mainstay in this area to this day. Thirteen months of breakdowns, two thousand six hundred and sixty feet down, and one contractor named Winston swinging cable tools on a West Texas ranch — that's what it took to light up a corner of the state.
Some wells run dry. This one ran deep enough to matter for over a century.
What the marker says
The appearance in 1908 of oil and gas in water wells in this vicinity prompted the Texas Company (later Texaco, Inc.) in June 1909 to begin leasing large tracts of land. After a surface geological survey, a wooden derrick complete with cable tools and steam engine was erected by contractor F. J. Winston on a prospective location on the Jim Cottle Ranch and on September 23, 1909, drilling operations began. Equipment breakdowns were frequent and sometimes lengthy, but finally, on November 9, 1910, after 13 months of drilling, the Cottle No. 1 struck natural gas at a depth of 2660 feet. This discovery opened the Moran field, and was the first commercial gas well completed in this vast West Texas area. In the spring of 1911, gas was piped to Moran for residential and business use. Within two years (in 1913) the cities of Albany, Cisco, and Abilene were supplied for the first time with natural gas. By October 1913, with five producing gas wells, the Moran field won recognition as one of the most important sources of fossil fuels in Texas. Although the Cottle No. 1 was plugged years ago, Moran field continues to be an economic mainstay in this area. Marker Sponsors: Citizens of Moran. (1974)