Oliver Winfield Killam
Mirando City, Webb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Discoverer of first commercial oil field in south Texas; founder of Mirando City, as base of operations. Born in Lincoln county, Mo.; graduated in law at University of Missouri, 1898. Operated stores and lumber yards and served 8 years in legislature of Oklahoma. Came to Texas to explore for oil in 1920. After drilling twice unsuccessfully, he brought in as a pumper the first commercial well south of San Antonio, Mirando Oil Co. No. 3 Hinnant, April 17, 1921. With Colon Schott of Cincinnati, Oh., drilled Schott No. 2 (1 mile south of here), which came in as a gusher Dec. 10, 1921 -- opening the south Texas oil boom. The U.S. Post Office in Mirando City opened May 18, 1922, to serve town that jumped suddenly in population to a reputed 13,000. All sorts of businesses boomed; and churches, school, and medical facilities expanded. O. W. Killam was crowned "King Petrol" at Oil Men's Jubilee, Laredo, July 4, 1937. He was also esteemed by ranchers aware of oil lease benefits to the area. Killam and his wife Hattie (Smith) had 3 children: Winfield (Hank, now deceased), Louise (Mrs. John Hurd, also deceased), and Radcliffe. The O. W. Killam shops and Radcliffe Killam's oil operations continue as Mirando City celebrates its 50th anniversary. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Missouri-born lawyer and former Oklahoma legislator, Oliver Winfield Killam came to Texas in 1920 chasing oil. After two dry holes, his Mirando Oil Co. brought in the first commercial well south of San Antonio in 1921, and a gusher that December opened the South Texas oil boom. The instant town of Mirando City he founded swelled to a reported 13,000, sprouting stores, churches, schools, and a post office almost overnight.
Why it matters
Killam's strike extended the great Texas oil rush into the state's southern reaches, turning ranchland into a booming petroleum economy that reshaped the region.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The early 1920s were the years when oil remade Texas. Earlier strikes had already shown the world what lay beneath the state's surface, and prospectors, drillers, and speculators fanned out across the map chasing the next great field. Fortunes could appear overnight where there had been nothing but ranchland the week before.
This was the Progressive and Modern era, when the automobile was transforming American life and demand for petroleum was climbing fast. Oil was no longer just a commodity; it was the fuel of a whole new way of living, and the race to find it drove men into some of the most remote country in the state.
South Texas, below San Antonio, had not yet joined that boom. It was cattle country, defined by ranches and distance. What it lacked was proof that commercial oil could be pulled from its ground, and that proof was exactly what one determined newcomer set out to find.
People & events
Oliver Winfield Killam arrived in Texas in 1920 with an unlikely resume for a wildcatter. Born in Lincoln County, Missouri, he had graduated in law from the University of Missouri in 1898, run stores and lumber yards, and served eight years in the Oklahoma legislature before turning his energy to the search for oil.
His start was discouraging. He drilled twice without success before finally bringing in the first commercial well south of San Antonio, the Mirando Oil Co. No. 3 Hinnant, on April 17, 1921. The real breakthrough came that December: working with Colon Schott of Cincinnati, he drilled Schott No. 2, which came in as a gusher on December 10, 1921, and opened the South Texas oil boom.
What followed was the classic story of an instant town. Killam founded Mirando City as his base of operations, a post office opened there in May 1922, and the population reportedly leapt to some 13,000. Stores, churches, schools, and medical facilities sprang up almost overnight. Ranchers welcomed the lease income, and in 1937 Killam was crowned "King Petrol" at an Oil Men's Jubilee in Laredo. He and his wife, Hattie Smith Killam, raised three children, and the family's oil operations, carried on by their son Radcliffe, continued into the town's later years.
Its place in the American story
Killam's strike is a piece of the sweeping American story of how oil rewired the nation's economy and geography in the early twentieth century. Each new field pulled the country further into an age powered by petroleum, and the opening of South Texas extended that transformation into a corner of the map that ranching alone had defined.
The boomtown he founded is a textbook example of a distinctly American phenomenon: the community that materializes almost instantly around a resource. From a few wells sprang a town of thousands, complete with the institutions of settled life, compressed into a span of months rather than generations.
His own path is telling, too. A lawyer and former legislator turned wildcatter, Killam embodied the restless reinvention that the oil era invited, where the chance to strike it big drew people from every prior walk of life. His success turned quiet ranchland into a petroleum economy and reshaped the fortunes of the whole region.
If you visit
This landmark stands at Mirando City, and the first thing to reckon with is the contrast between then and now. The marker recalls a place that reportedly held thousands in its boom, so let your imagination fill in the crowds, the derricks, and the frantic energy that a strike could summon out of open country.
The surrounding landscape tells its own story. This is still wide, working South Texas, where oil and ranching have long shared the same ground, and driving the roads out here gives you a real sense of how remote and improbable a sudden city of thousands would have been.
For a road trip, this marker pairs naturally with the broader oil heritage of the region and with the ranch country around Laredo. Stop, read the story of the well that started it all in December 1921, and take a moment to appreciate how a couple of gushers could put a brand-new town on the map.
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
- · Oliver Winfield Killam
- · Hattie Smith Killam
- · Radcliffe Killam
Related events
- · South Texas oil boom
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