Tales From The Oil Patch

With the discovery of oil in Oklahoma and Texas in the latter part of the 19th century, there came a flood of men seeking the riches of this black gold.

These men were eastern storekeepers, immigrants, Pennsylvania oilmen and a generous mixing of conmen, gamblers and ladies of easy virtue.

One of the lesser-known oilmen was those called the lease man, land man or field man. Their jobs were to contact the property owners and secure leases on the mineral rights of the land. Often these landmen worked for oil companies and were getting leases for their company. Many however were free lancers and bought and sold leases the same day on many occasions.

In Love County, Oklahoma, there was an oil spring which oozed the black liquid into a pool. As early as 1855, the local white settlers and the Indians as well took baths in the black pool to cure themselves of everything from rheumatism to headaches to indigestion. So, one of the first uses for crude oil in Oklahoma was as a medicine.

In the early days, geology was pretty much a hit and miss proposition. The geologist would walk around the country looking for exposed beds of asphalt or oil springs. Diving rods were used just as the old water well diggers used as well as the secret "Doodlebug" which could find oil.

"Creekology" was also in use where the wildcatter would drill inside the curve of a creek or riverbed. Most of the old wildcatters thought "close" was the best geology where they had to be close enough to the last well to smell it.

Surface structures, yucca weed or anything else one believed in was a "good enough" sign for some. Truthfully, most of the old wildcatters just did not put much faith in geologist and would not spend the time or money on them.

One early day oil man got his start in the oil patch by buying only land that geologist passed up. He got rich. On one of these leases that geologist passed up, the wildcatter sold part of his lease to finance drilling and drilled thirty-two wells. The smallest of these produced 880 barrels per day and the largest produced four thousand barrels per day. Some of these wells produced for thirty-five years.

Slowly the drillers began to notice seismology and subsurface structure. E.W. Marland, oil man and future governor of Oklahoma had a very persuasive geologist tell him he could set off a dynamite charge in an old elm tree and that would pick up the right formation where oil could be found. They got a large box of dynamite and packed the old elm tree full, set it off and broke every window for three miles around, blowing the old tree to smithereens and causing a woman to miscarry.

Wildcatters never drilled because the knew what was there, it was because the wanted to find out what was there. If it had to be a lead-pipe cinch beforehand, not a well would have ever been drilled in the early days.

"Signin' 'em up" is the critical step in drilling an oil well and the land man used every conceivable method to entice the landowner into putting his "John Hancock" on the dotted line.

There is the story of one land man who wanted the lease on a particularly valuable piece of property. He was told the old farmer would not sign under any circumstances as many others had tried before and failed. He went and visited with the farmer who lived in the most modest of means. The old man told him he would not sign the lease under any circumstances. As the land man was leaving he noticed the farmers old rattletrap pickup sitting in the front yard. He went to town and bought a brand new red Chevy pickup and drove it out to the old farmer's house and presented it to the farmer who signed the lease on the spot.

When the oil boom began in Borger TX, there was a flood of leasemen who cascaded across the prairie farms and ranches like a dust storm. The ranchers and farmers quickly grew to hate the landmen who they considered scoundrels at best.

On one occasion a leaseman went to an old rancher and after much cajoling got the old timer to sign the lease. The leaseman contacted his company and was told to immediately sell the lease to another oil company, which he did. The next morning as he entered the courthouse to file the lease, he was confronted by the angry rancher who had found out the leaseman had re-sold the lease for a small fortune. At the rancher's request, the leaseman and the rancher started to the top of the courthouse toward the cupola on the roof. Here there were two chairs and a big drop to the ground.

Upon arriving in the cupola, they walked through a door with a small transom window, the rancher took one of the chairs and propped it against the door. He sat in the other chair and pulled out a knife and a piece of wood and started whittling. The rancher proceeded to tell the leaseman, an immigrant from Norway named Olsen, how unhappy he was that Olsen had made so much money in less than a day. Olsen reminded that he had paid the price the rancher asked and that it was none of his business what the oil company did with the lease.

The rancher then stood up and put the knife to Oslo's chest and said, "I'm going to cut your heart out". Olsen took a deep breath and in broken English blurted out the first thing that crossed his mind " If you start at me vit dat knife, all you vill see of me are my feet going trough dat transom". The rancher thought on it for a few minutes and began laughing.

Many of the ranchers in the panhandle hated the oil companies. It was not uncommon to see signs reading " NOTICE OILMEN. NO TRESPASSING. IF CAUGHT WILL BE SHOT. IF SHOT WILL BE BURIED."

Borger, Texas was a wild and wooly place during the oil boom. It was not uncommon for a crew on a drilling rig to be robbed. Neither was it uncommon for someone to be murdered every day. It was so bad in fact that the local newspaper had a headline one day that read, "NOBODY KILLED IN BORGER TODAY".

Even the town's namesake was murdered in the post office. Borger didn't have a jail then but they did have a vacant lot. The authorities just drove metal stakes in the ground and chained the prisoners to the stakes in the nice fresh air.

The Red River basin was no different in the wild shenanigans pulled off on both sides of the river. The main problem was that the course of the river changed frequently and one day a lease might be in Texas and the next day after a flood the land was in Oklahoma. It became so bad in the 1930s that the Texas Rangers were called out to settle the matter only to be confronted by the Oklahoma National Guard who were sent by the governor to protect Oklahoma's interest.

The questionable oil leases were selling for $10,000 an acre with no real indication as to which state they were really located. Suddenly wells began hitting salt water and the frenzy collapsed making the leases worthless.

The leasemen were not the only shady character in the wild era of oil leases. Many times the farmer would sell a lease for $15 an acre. An hour or so later another leaseman would show up and the farmer would sell him the same lease for $25 an acre. Later in the afternoon the third lease man would arrive and the farmer now the wiser on how to handle these leasemen would negotiate the lease for $100 an acre. He would then sit back and let the oil companies fight it out in court.

There sure enough were a lot of con men out there in the oil patch during the early days but there were tremendous profits to be made. Deep Rock Oil hit a well in 1931 near Wewoka that produced 10,000 barrels a day. But all was not roses and sunlight with such production rates. A driller in east Texas hit three wells that produced 20,000 barrels per day - each. The problem was there was now a terrible oil glut. Oil was selling for ten cents per barrel and the oil refining companies were not buying that much.

One oil man in Ada was making $14,000 a month in royalties but was paying the bank $12,000 a month in payments for the loan to drill the wells which left him with $2,000 a month to pay his unsecured creditors.

Immense fortunes were made during the oil boom of the early 1900s. When the Glenn Pool was opened in 1905 near Tulsa, many future oil millionaires would be born. Among those were J. Paul Getty and Harry Sinclair. Harry was a pharmacist in Tulsa and used his meager savings to purchase his first lease. He left his heirs a multimillion-dollar fortune from his Sinclair Oil and Gas Company.

The fickled finger of fate also played a part in the development of early fields. In August of 1913, a group of investors formed a partnership and decided to see if there was any oil around Ardmore.

They loaded a wagon with supplies and started for their lease and new drilling site. The wagon broke down on the way and the supplies were unloaded and the wagon taken back to town for repairs. The next morning, the drilling crew arrived, saw the supplies and "rigged up" right there. The crew hit a gusher and that was the opening of the Healdton oil field. They next drilled at their intended location and hit a dry hole. Perhaps if that wagon had not broken down the Healdton field may never have been discovered.

It is often wondered if there is nothing an oilman won't do to hit pay dirt. In Lake Texoma there are many "offshore rigs" in the middle of the lake. The Sunday Oklahoman of August 11, 1946 reported that these were the deepest submerged drilling in inland waters. In Gladewater, Texas a company drilled three wells in a cemetery.

There are many stories like these in the oil patch history. Many of these people were scoundrels but most were honest businessmen. All, however, had the chance to become incredibly wealthy overnight.

Contributed by Dennis Muncrief - December, 2003