Garza County's First Oil Well
Justiceburg, Garza County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(3 1/2 miles east) After several unsuccessful ventures from 1911 to 1919, the first oil producer in the county was completed on J.M. Boren property at Justiceburg in 1926. The well was begun in 1924 by Phelps, Caldwell and Blackwell Oil Company. It produced a total of 1,641 barrels before it was abandoned in 1932. In 1932 four producing wells were completed south of Post; a refinery was built near city. Garza County has a number of fields, and its 1,500 wells have produced more than 85,000,000 barrels of oil. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After a string of failures from 1911 to 1919, Garza County's first producing oil well came in on the J.M. Boren property near Justiceburg in 1926, drilled by the Phelps, Caldwell and Blackwell Oil Company. That single well produced 1,641 barrels before being abandoned in 1932, the same year four more wells came in south of Post and a refinery rose nearby. The county's fields would eventually yield more than 85 million barrels.
Why it matters
The well captures the trial-and-error persistence behind West Texas's oil boom, where years of dry holes finally gave way to a industry that reshaped the region.
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Related events
- · Completion of Garza County's first oil well (1926)
Themes & tags
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