Jarman No. 1 Discovery Well
Van, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Pure Oil Company conducted seismograph surveys in Van Zandt County in 1927 and that summer leased about 17,000 acres in the Van area for exploration. Core drilling began in January 1929, and the first derrick was erected in a cotton patch on the farm of W. T. Jarman (1856-1928). The flurry of activity in the area brought many curious onlookers. Families brought picnic lunches and spent entire days watching the drilling crews. On October 13 thousands of people came and waited all day, leaving that evening disappointed that nothing had happened. Early on the morning of October 14 the Number One well quietly came in, launching the village of Van into a boomtown overnight. In 1929 Van was a small farming community, with a general store and a two-room school. Suddenly stores, hotels, and dance halls sprung up throughout the town, and new schools and roads were built to serve the increased population. The Jarman Number One Well was the first of 591 wells in the Van field. In the first twenty years over 200 million barrels of oil were produced, and in December 1985 the field yielded its 500 millionth barrel of oil. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After seismograph surveys and leasing of thousands of acres, the Pure Oil Company began drilling in a cotton patch on W. T. Jarman's farm in 1929. Crowds brought picnic lunches to watch, and after one disappointing all-day vigil the Number One well quietly came in on the morning of October 14, turning the sleepy village of Van into an overnight boomtown. It was the first of 591 wells in a field that would yield hundreds of millions of barrels of oil.
Why it matters
The Jarman discovery captures the wildcat oil booms that transformed rural Texas towns overnight and made the state a powerhouse of the twentieth-century American economy.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1920s oil was reshaping Texas. The Spindletop gusher near Beaumont had opened the century with a roar, and boom after boom followed across the state. Oil companies were adopting new scientific tools as well, including seismograph surveys that bounced sound waves off buried rock layers to find promising formations underground.
Van Zandt County at the time was farm country. Van itself was a small community with a general store and a two-room school, where cotton mattered far more than crude. Families there lived much like rural families across the South, close to the land and close to one another.
The timing is striking. The Jarman well came in during mid-October 1929, only days before the stock market crash that signaled the start of the Great Depression. As much of the nation headed into economic disaster, a small East Texas town was heading the other way.
People & events
The story starts with the Pure Oil Company. In 1927 its crews ran seismograph surveys in the county, and that summer the company leased about 17,000 acres around Van. Core drilling started in January 1929, and the first derrick went up in an unlikely spot, a cotton patch on the farm of W. T. Jarman. Jarman had died the year before, so he never saw what came up out of his land.
The drilling turned into a local spectacle. Curious neighbors came to watch, and whole families packed picnic lunches and spent entire days near the rig as though it were a county fair. On October 13 thousands of people gathered and waited from morning to evening, sure this was the day. Nothing happened, and they went home disappointed.
Then, early the next morning, October 14, the Number One well came in quietly, with none of the drama the crowd had hoped to see. That quiet moment changed everything. Van became a boomtown almost overnight. Stores, hotels, and dance halls went up, and new schools and roads were built for the flood of newcomers. The Jarman well turned out to be the first of 591 wells in the Van field.
Its place in the American story
The Van field was a major producer. Over its first twenty years it yielded more than 200 million barrels of oil, and in December 1985 it reached its 500 millionth barrel. Oil like this powered the automobiles, factories, and eventually the war machinery that defined twentieth-century America.
Van's story is also the story of many American boomtowns. A quiet farming community could become a crowded, noisy, prosperous town in a matter of weeks, with all the opportunity and upheaval that brought. Similar transformations played out across Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond, and they redrew the social and economic map of the region.
The Van discovery also shows how the oil business was changing. Methodical geophysical surveys and large-scale leasing were replacing pure hunches, and they marked a shift toward the science-driven industry that would make Texas one of the energy capitals of the world.
If you visit
Stand at the marker and try to picture the scene in October 1929: a cotton field, a wooden derrick, and crowds of families on picnic blankets, waiting for something that wouldn't happen until they had all gone home. It is one of the more charming discovery stories in Texas oil history, and it is easy to imagine.
As you drive around Van, watch for signs of the field that grew out of this spot. Oil country tends to leave its mark on the landscape and on a town's sense of itself, and here the boom is part of local identity. The marker was placed for the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986, which shows how central the discovery is to the area's story.
Van lies in the East Texas countryside and pairs well with a wider drive through the region's oil and farm towns. It's a good stop for families. Kids tend to love the picture of a whole town waiting all day for a well that came in the next morning while everyone was asleep.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · W. T. Jarman
Themes & tags
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