Gulf Dial #1 Oil Well
Stinnett, Hutchinson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The southeastern Texas oil field, Spindletop, erupted on January 10, 1901, launching an oil boom in the state. This prompted many corporations and individuals to begin drilling for oil in Texas. By the 1920s, the rush reached the Texas Panhandle. In May 1921, The Gulf Production Company discovered oil at Gulf Burnett #2 well in Carson County. A few months later, The Gulf Company began drilling on the Dial Ranch, named after the original owners, J.C. and C.L. Dial. The Gulf Dial #1 well utilized cable-tool drilling, a method used mostly for shallow wells. Equipped with the drilling mechanism and equipment, a wooden derrick stood approximately 80 feet high at each oil well. In the spring of 1922, the well began filling up with hundreds of feet of oil after months of drilling. While the nearby Smith-Capers well was established first, the Gulf Dial # 1 became Hutchinson County's first successful oil well. By the summer of 1922, the well pumped around 500 barrels a day. Later, however, the well produced 135 barrels a day. Because of the success of Gulf Dial #1, workers and other residents built a small camp within the oil field. Established in 1925, Dial, Texas, consisted of eighty to one hundred oil field workers and their families. The Gulf Dial # 1, produced oil for more than 50 years. The Dial lease faded into obscurity after production of its many wells declined, but the oil field was essential in Hutchinson County's early economic development. Because of its discovery, Gulf Dial #1 catalyzed the founding of Borger as one of the most successful oil towns in the United States. (2018)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After the Spindletop gusher of 1901 set off a statewide oil rush, the boom reached the Texas Panhandle by the 1920s. The Gulf Production Company began drilling on the Dial Ranch, and in the spring of 1922 the Gulf Dial #1—sunk by cable-tool rig beneath an 80-foot wooden derrick—came in as Hutchinson County's first successful oil well, pumping some 500 barrels a day. A camp of oil-field families grew up around it, and the strike helped launch nearby Borger into one of America's boomtowns.
Why it matters
Gulf Dial #1 marks the moment the Panhandle joined the Texas oil boom, the industry that would reshape the state's economy and dot its plains with instant towns.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J.C. Dial
- · C.L. Dial
Related events
- · Spindletop
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hutchinson County Courthouse
Stinnett, TX
Hutchinson County, carved from the Bexar District in 1876 and finally organized in 1901, moved its seat from Plemons to Stinnett in 1926 just as major oil discoveries transformed the Panhandle. The 1927 courthouse, designed by Amarillo architect W. C. Townes in Spanish Renaissance Revival style, rose in brick and cut stone and also housed the county jail. Friezes at its entrances celebrate petroleum, farming and ranching, and cattle — the three industries that made the county.
Plemons Bridge
Borger, TX
When oil struck Hutchinson County in 1926 and the boomtown of Borger sprang up overnight, the county needed a way across the wide, quicksand-laced Canadian River. Commissioners hired a Dallas firm to build a toll bridge at Dixon Point, charging a dime for pedestrians and a dollar for automobiles until its cost was repaid. Nearly half a mile of steel Warren pony trusses made it a distinctive span, and it stands as a relic of the county's oil-boom birth.
Ace Borger Home
Borger, TX
Asa P. "Ace" Borger, a Missouri-born townsite promoter, platted this Panhandle boomtown in 1926 and worked to tame a rowdy oil camp into a lasting community. In 1928–29 he and his wife Elizabeth built this two-story house—the first brick residence in Borger. It stayed in the family for three generations. Ace earned a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation in 1976.
Grand Hotel and Grand Hardware Building
Borger, TX
When oil transformed the Texas Panhandle, Borger sprang up as a townsite in 1926, and Greek immigrant brothers Gus and John Yiantsou arrived from St. Louis to open a restaurant. In 1927 Gus erected this building — among the first substantial structures in the roaring boomtown — and by 1929 the brothers were running Grand Hardware and Variety Store below a second-floor hotel. Known for their generosity, the Yiantsous gave freely to local and Greek charities.