Masterson, Texas

Texas

Before the first well was drilled here, the geologist told investors flat out that nobody knew whether there was any gas under the Texas Panhandle at all.

The nearest known oil or gas was two hundred and twenty five miles away. Charles Gould had mapped a dome fifteen miles across on the Masterson and Bivins ranches, and he made a speech before drilling began. No one knows whether or not the Lord has put any gas or oil in the Panhandle of Texas, he said, but if there should be any, this would appear to be the best place to find it. He guessed gas rather than oil. In December of nineteen eighteen the well hit gas sands at about two thousand two hundred feet and flowed eleven million cubic feet a day. The company had leased sixty four thousand acres around it. Gould took a sixteenth of the acreage and a thousand dollars. A town grew up here in nineteen twenty seven to serve the gas plant and pipeline. Thirty two company houses for families, a hotel for the single men. Starting in nineteen forty three they pulled helium out of the gas nearby, helium that came from uranium-bearing rock deep below.

Wayside reads this to you as you drive past, timed to arrive before the place does. Plan a route through here.

What this was written from
No one knows whether or not the Lord has put any gas or oil in the Panhandle of Texas, but if there should be any oil or gas in this part of the world, this would appear to be the best place to find it.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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