On a cloudy Saturday afternoon, a couple of days after a few storms blew through the area, and on a year that broke the record for rain, MyMrMallory and I decided to traipse over to Electra, Texas, to view a stone memorial. We had no idea that this one marker differed from the others around the county in that it stands in an active oil field.
The memorial to the first significant oil well drilled in Wichita County sits in an active oil field.
Installed in 1946, the marker is a metal plate bolted onto a granite stone. It sits on a gravel foundation surrounded by a metal barrier.
The marker says, "ClayCo No. 1. Here flowed oil, April 1st, 1911 opening one of the world's greatest oil fields." By the end of that year, Electra reported 900,000 barrels of oil had been produced.
Photograph of ClayCo No. 1 from the American Oil & Gas Historical Association.
Read their interesting story about Electra, Pump Jack Capital of Texas.
We had no idea that the oil field had become soggy and muddy, why, not at all. None of the overflowing ponds along the roads, the water standing ankle-deep in the ditches, none of that gave us any clue that we would encounter any mud at all in the countryside.
From Electra, crossing Highway 287, we headed north State Highway 25 for less than a quarter of a mile. On both sides of the road, we passed two cemeteries. Google Earth identified them as the Old Electra Memorial Cemetery on the west side of the road, and the New Electra Cemetery on the east side. Next to the Old Electra Memorial Cemetery on the west side, we came upon the Precinct #4 Annex, and next to it we found the gate to the oil patch in which the marker, somewhere, has sat since May 2nd, 1946.
Our eyes wide open, we searched for the landmarks that Mary Kearby, from the Wichita County Historical Commission, had written in her instructions fifteen years ago, aware that things change within the period of fifteen years.
At the gate, a centennial celebration sign gave us some comfort. The sign showed a picture of an oil well with the name ClayCo #1 written in large, clear letters.
Mary's directions mentioned the Belco Energy Company, apparently no longer there, for there were no obvious signs. The operating company for the oil field wells is now the Layline Energy Company.
The Precinct #4 Annex does still exist, helping us to find the gate, which stands next to it. Finding it open, we crossed the cattle guard, and that is when we note the condition of the roads in the field. One of them leads to the stone memorial, yes, the worst one, the one with the most water puddled and the one with the deepest ruts.
I felt ready to go home and snuggle up in our nice cozy home, hot cocoa, little fire going in the fireplace. MyMrMallory, though, hopped out of the truck and began to walk across the pasture. I pulled on my boots and started after him.
Cattle ran away from us as we walk toward the muddy roads.
Deep ruts on a muddy road.
Oh, a pumper appeared! So unexpected on a Saturday afternoon. We felt lucky, for now we can save time by asking him the location of the marker. He is fearless driving his truck on those muddy roads.
Mr. Stacy Case, stopped to give us instructions and to visit for a while about his life in the oil field.
A "turtle head," perhaps one hundred years old, was employed to repair rods.
Mr. Stacy directed us to walk to the left of the abandoned power house.
The road to the marker is the second right after the power house.
The delineation of the Mobile Flying Filly on the front wall of the power house.
A rolled up belt among the mesquite that surrounds the power house.
The holes through which the belts moved in and out of the power house. Powerhouses protected the engines that ran the pumping units in the surrounding field. Later at home, MyMrMallory found a post about an old powerhouse at the USDA site. Specifically, that it had a "rhythmic thumping" and a "clinking of rod lines," and "screeching of belts [ . . .] now just echoes in the wind, ringing off the scrap metal walls." Reading the description of what it might have sounded placed us in that time when roughnecks kept in functioning order the engine in the powerhouse.
Mr. Stacy's blue rag helped us to find the location of the memorial.
A map he drew for us is of great help, too.
In 1915 and again in 1919, the area received records amounts of rain, as we did this year.
Just image the pumpers slogging through the mud back then, too, perhaps in a Wichita truck. Visit the Texas Transportation Museum's Web site to view images of trucks from that era.
