Oil and Gas Industry in Pecos County
Ft. Stockton, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in the petroleum-rich Permian Basin, Pecos is one of the most prolific oil- and gas-producing counties in Texas. The petroleum business here began about 1900 with the drilling of the Turney well near an ancient "seep", a traditional local source of oil for lubricating and medicinal purposes. A short-lived boom in 1921 caused by the discovery of the "Miracle Well" heralded the arrival of the fabulous Yates oil field (1926), indicating the area's great potential oil wealth. Since that year over 710 million barrels of oil have been produced from the Yates, Fort Stockton and other county fields. The presence of natural gas, known for years, was slow to be exploited because gas was considered an undesirable by-product of the oil business. The first commercial use of gas here was inspired after it was found by workers drilling a water well, in 1925. The discovery, about 1948, of Santa Rosa field spurred exploration that brought in the Puckett field in 1952. Subsequent deep drilling tapped many extensive pools, including in 1963 the prolific Gomez Field, which had produced over 478 billion cubic feet of gas as of 1970. Today petroleum is the single most important economic asset of Pecos County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Sitting atop the petroleum-rich Permian Basin, Pecos County went from an ancient oil "seep" — long tapped by locals for lubricant and medicine — to one of Texas's most prolific producers. A 1921 "Miracle Well" heralded the fabulous Yates field of 1926, and over the following decades hundreds of millions of barrels flowed from county fields. Natural gas, once dismissed as a nuisance byproduct, later became its own bonanza as deep drilling opened vast pools like the Gomez Field.
Why it matters
It chronicles how the Permian Basin oil and gas boom transformed a remote desert county into an engine of the Texas economy and the modern American energy landscape.
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Related events
- · Discovery of the Yates oil field
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First National Bank Building
Fort Stockton, TX
Completed in 1912, this Neo-Classical building with massive Doric columns and an ornate pediment housed the First National Bank of Fort Stockton until the Great Depression drove it under. In 1935 the Pecos County State Bank took over the premises, keeping the corner a center of West Texas finance until 1960. Its temple-front styling was a deliberate architectural promise of stability in a frontier economy.
O. W. Williams
Fort Stockton, TX
Harvard-trained lawyer Oscar Waldo Williams came to Texas in 1876 seeking a drier climate and threw himself into the opening of the West Texas frontier, surveying newly settled lands and serving as Pecos County's deputy surveyor and later county judge. From an office he built in Fort Stockton around 1915, he became an authority on land law and water rights and turned his eye to the region's emerging oil and gas leases. A tireless observer, he also wrote widely on the history, folklore, and natural history of the Southwest.
Koehler's Saloon and Store
Ft. Stockton, TX
In the cattle-and-railroad West of 1870s Texas, a sturdy field-stone building rose in the frontier outpost of Fort Stockton, hard by the old military road and springs of the Trans-Pecos. By 1884 Herman Koehler had turned it into a one-stop hub of frontier commerce — a saloon at one end and a general store and bank at the other — later crowned with a second story as the town grew. Buildings like this were the true civic centers of remote Texas towns, where a rancher could wet his throat, buy provisions, and settle accounts under one roof.
Young's Store
Ft. Stockton, TX
F. W. Young, a former post sutler at Fort Stockton, built his store and home in 1876 at the ford over Comanche Creek, with a wagon yard and corrals out back. Positioned at a natural crossing on the frontier, it served travelers, soldiers, and the growing town alike. The building marks the shift from selling to soldiers on the post to serving a civilian community taking root beside the fort.