There are stories aplenty of “company towns” built by oil companies in oil’s early 20th century heyday, but no company town fit the mold better than a Basin town, Texon, that endured for generations. by Bobby Weaver Back in 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit song entitled “Sixteen Tons” concerning the travails of a […]
From Fresnos to Caterpillars
Dirt Work is the oilfield’s under-appreciated trade, and yet nothing gets done in the Patch until the dirt’s been worked. by Bobby Weaver I’ll never forget the first time I went out on a tanking job. It happened early in the summer of ’55, when we contracted to build a battery of two hi-fives in […]
Oil Scouts and Landmen: Perceptive, Perspicacious, and Persuasive
Oil scouts and land men have a history that intertwines—and skills sets that have some things in common. by Bobby Weaver The oil and gas industry has always been an extremely competitive field. From its very beginning in Pennsylvania in the 1850s, it was an industry whose practitioners found it necessary to know what the […]
Holding Stuff Together
Welding transformed the oil and gas industry. Electric arc welding and oxy-acetylene have been tools for shaping a world. by Bobby Weaver Welding is one of those trades necessary for the operation of today’s petroleum industry. It is hard to imagine almost any type of oilfield equipment that does not involve welding in one […]
Seventy Years of Burmass History
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the introduction of the Burmass Directory. An article from a generation ago tells the tale of the directory, also known as the Bible of the Basin, and tells it better than any living individual could. Much has changed, and yet so much remains the same. The story of […]
Boom First, Borough Later
The journey from boom towns to urbanization has not been a straight-line progression for oil country, but it’s been a progression nonetheless, and one that has brought with it an ever-finer standard of life. by Bobby Weaver The residents of Texas oil towns are proud of the accomplishments and contributions of their respective communities, […]
Ode to the Oil Patch
Poet Laureate of the Oil Patch The man who was known as “Rod Tailin’ Blackie” was a voice for the ages. Few occupations have been immortalized in poetry like the gold mining poems of the Yukon penned by Robert W. Service. Alas, the petroleum industry has no poet of that stature to glorify its lifestyle. […]
The Well That Launched the Permian
Santa Rita #1 was the discovery well that opened what would prove to be the biggest oilfield in America, and what might someday become the biggest in the world. Its story is one that epitomizes what the oilfield is all about. by Bobby Weaver It has been almost one hundred years since the Santa […]
Call Kinley
When all other hope was gone, “Call Kinley” was the call that went out. Myron Kinley, the man who taught Red Adair how to fight fires, was an oil well firefighter of considerable repute himself. by Bobby Weaver On May 12, 1978, at Chickasha, Okla., a soft-spoken huskily built man of medium […]
Flying High Once Again
The Petroleum Museum renovation is complete, and the results are likely to amaze and delight almost any visitor. Lana Cunningham Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The countdown begins on the clock outside Mythcrackers Theater. Once visitors enter the small theater on the first stop at the newly remodeled Petroleum Museum, the fun begins. Visitors […]