Dr. Charles Newton Gould
Amarillo, Potter County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer in Texas Geology and Paleontology Dr. Charles Newton Gould (1868 - 1949) One of early scientists to use geology in search for oil and gas. This region's rapid economic growth in 1920's and 30's was result of Gould's selection of drill site for Hapgood No. 1--Masterson, discovery well of the vast Panhandle-Hugoton Gas Field, the world's largest known source for helium. Gould was born in Ohio; grew up in Kansas, where he began teaching; gained scientific background in summer schools and in covered wagon and horseback field trips; by 25 was a widely-known paleontologist; became a professor at the University of Oklahoma. In 1903-1905 he made studies of Texas Panhandle water resources, for the United States Geological Survey. A geological structure he observed (1904) and named Alibates Dolomite in 1907 led him to suggest to Amarillo merchants and ranchmen the drilling site in 1918 for Hapgood No. 1-Masterson Well. In 1919 he set the location for Gulf No. 2, first oil well in the Texas Panhandle and High Plains region. Gould was the scientist who first identified these quarries (now Alibates National Monument) as source for flint artifacts made by Ice Age Folsom Man--a major North American anthropological discovery. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. Charles Newton Gould, an Ohio-born, Kansas-raised scientist who taught his way into paleontology and geology, became a pioneer of using earth science to hunt for oil and gas. His reading of the Texas Panhandle's rock led him to pick the drilling site for the 1918 Hapgood–Masterson well, opening the enormous Panhandle-Hugoton gas field—the world's greatest known source of helium—and he set the location of the region's first oil well the next year. Gould also identified the Alibates flint quarries as the source of tools made by Ice Age Folsom hunters, a landmark discovery in American archaeology.
Why it matters
Gould's work helped turn the Texas Panhandle into an energy powerhouse and linked modern science to the deep human past of the North American plains.
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Themes & tags
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