Iraan
Iraan, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1922 three local businessmen, O. W. Parker, George Thompson, and I. G. Yates, leased the drilling rights on twenty sections of ranch land to Transcontinental Oil Company. After two dry holes were drilled the I. G. Yates well No. 1 blew in on October 28, 1926. The area around ranch headquarters became a boom town. Because it was isolated, support of the increased population became difficult. Yates converted a barn into a hotel and the area became known as Red Barn Community. In April 1927 Yates commissioned H. L. George of San Angelo to survey a townsite at this location, 3 miles north of Red Barn. A contest was held to choose a name for the new town. The winner was "Iraan", submitted by C. R. Hallmark who combined the names of Ira Yates and his wife Ann. His prize was a city lot. The first business to operate in Iraan was a service station run by K. P. Looney. A Post Office was opened in 1928. A nondenominational chapel known as union church was set up from contributions by Yates and Mid-Kansas Oil Company. During the boom days of Iraan, V. T. Hamlin worked as a free-lance writer. It was here that he created the comic strip "Alley Oop" . A park honoring his cartoon characters is located in the city.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1922, three businessmen leased drilling rights on West Texas ranch land, and after two dry holes the I.G. Yates No. 1 well blew in on October 28, 1926, igniting a boom. Ira Yates surveyed a townsite that took its name — Iraan — from a contest-winning blend of his and his wife Ann's names, with the winner awarded a city lot. During the boom days a free-lance writer named V.T. Hamlin lived here and created the caveman comic strip "Alley Oop," now honored in a local park.
Why it matters
Iraan is a quintessential Permian Basin oil boomtown, born overnight from a gusher — and an unlikely birthplace of an American comic-strip classic.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Ira Yates
- · V.T. Hamlin
Related events
- · Yates oil field discovery
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Marathon Oil Company Discovery Well
Iraan, TX
On October 29, 1926, Mid-Kansas Oil and Gas Company brought in the I. G. Yates "A" No. 1 well at just 1,150 feet, with a rated potential of nearly 73,000 barrels a day—shattering the old wisdom that no oil lay west of the Pecos. Within a year the Yates field held a hundred wells over one of the world's largest reserves, and in 1928 its operators adopted the state's first complete proration under the Texas Railroad Commission.
O. W. Parker Ranch Headquarters
Iraan, TX
O. W. Parker arrived in Crockett County in 1902 as a ranch hand and slowly built holdings of his own on the vast West Texas range. When the 1926 discovery of the Yates oil field showered the region with new wealth, Parker built this fine Spanish Colonial Revival home, completed in 1930 and known for the orchards and gardens his wife Mildred tended.
Rattlesnake Butte
McCamey, TX
Rattlesnake Butte earned its name from the wildlife spotted here in 1919 by students and professors of the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, who were mapping the county's resources. Rising about 2,600 feet, the butte belongs to the Central Basin Platform, its cap of erosion-resistant Lower Cretaceous limestone protecting the hills and mesas around it. Those same geologic formations proved ideal for the oil and gas production that would transform the region's economy.
Rodman-Noel Oil Field
Rankin, TX
In January 1953, oil veterans E. G. Rodman and W. D. Noel brought in their No. 1 Radford Grocery well a couple of miles south of here, opening a rich new field in the Permian Basin's Upton County. The strike came nearly three decades after the great McCamey boom, proving deep petroleum wealth still lay beneath the West Texas plains. Wells here flowed at extraordinary rates—some topping 3,000 barrels a day—feeding a county total that ran past 270 million barrels.