|
A little history:
Wildcatters first drilled for oil in Stephens County land in 1911; a 2,400-foot well eight miles northwest of Breckenridge was abandoned in 1913. Oil was finally found in May 1916, at a depth of 2,470 feet, on the W. L. Carey farm near Caddo. Soon other producing wells were drilled, including Smith No. 1 near Parks, which was the first heavy gas well struck in the county and the one that started the local boom. A terrific boom centering around Breckinridge took off in 1921, when drillers brought in Stoker No. 1 just outside of town. Breckenridge became a forest of wooden derricks; over 200 wells were drilled within the city limits. On September 1, 1921, Keithly No. 1 blew in at 3,068 feet with a huge flow that drenched the countryside until it was harnessed by the Humble Oil Company (later Exxon Company, U.S.A.) after two weeks' work. The Breckenridge oilfield was prodigious. In one year it produced 15 percent of all the oil produced in the United States (more than the combined production of the states of Louisiana and Kansas that year),
|
|
