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.
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Related people
- · W. T. Jarman
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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