Ada Belle Oil Well

Discovered in the Batson Oil Field and developed by the Parrafine Oil Co. in October 1903, the Ada Belle rig is the only remaining shallow oil well operation of its kind in the East Texas fields. Originally operating in the name of George Armstrong, the well was dug in 48 hours at a cost of $250 and initially yielded 600 barrels of oil a day. Wildcat is speculating inflating the price of leases on farmland to $1000 per acre. Roughnecks, firemen and pumpers from the failing Saratoga, Sour Lake and Votaw fields descended on Batson and the rural wooded area became a boom town. The population mushroomed from 100 households to 10,000 people in January 1904. Opportunistic lumber mill owners moved in to supply the operators with clapboard for housing, offices and storage units. Saloons, general stores and boarding houses opened among the tents and row houses quickly followed by a motley crew of gamblers, prostitutes and con-men who lent their lives to the legends and lore that rose from the fever in the earth.

Public offenders lined up once a week to plead guilty and pay their fines before returning for another week's work. "Sawmill weddings" were commonplace. This simple ceremony allowed that if a woman prisoner could convince a passerby to marry her, she would be released to his custody for the price of her fine.

One month after the well was operating, a blowout was heard and a fire ignited the field destroying everything except the rig. No dividends were paid until June 1906. Sam Karnes took over the operation of the well in 1904 and changed the company's name to Ada Belle in honor of his wife, Ada Marie. George Armstrong and Madaline Junk incorporated the fledgling company in July.

John Cashen, James Donahoe, and H. G. Camp formed the East Batson Oil Co. and merged with the Ada Belle Oil Co. in 1934. Cashen operated a roundhouse in the Batson field back in the 1920s which is still used today. It is the roundhouse's design that makes this process of oil extraction so economical and efficient: over 50 individual shallow wells can be pumped simultaneously. Accessible only by horseback or wagon, the roads to the fields were often impassable. During rainy weather, crewmen "corduroyed" the roads with logs. and drug equipment out to the fields with the assistance of mules and oxen. Seven days a week the oil men slogged through the mud to work the rigs and fight runaway fires in the fields. Sleeping cots were never allowed to cool with the rigging crews working twelve-hour shifts, changing at sunrise and sunset. The risk of danger was imminent--on the field and off. Crew members routinely fell off derricks and were killed from the impact of failing equipment. Many were blown to bits by unexpected explosions; others succumbed to poisonous gases trapped in low-relief areas. Off the job, shoot-outs and knifings were common. Oilmen worked hard and played hard, often placing their lives on the line as stakes. Policing the violence and crime in the camps became such a problem that offenders were occasionally bound to trees with tracing chains until a law enforcement officer could be summoned. Eventually, the Texas Rangers were called in to keep law and order.
Ada Belle's production level decreased steadily in 1904 from 10,000,000 barrels of oil to 200,000 in 1933.

Batson's boom period ended in 1908 when the wells began to turn to salt water. Production dropped until it was no longer profitable for the big operators and the crewmen moved on to Humble, Texas, a new boom town. The rig yields seven barrels of crude a day now, producing an annual income of $200,000. With expenses assessed at $93,500, the well is still profitable and energy efficient. The odor of the field with its venting gases and the rhythmical creaking of the wells and tank engines lulling the crewmen and their families to sleep are all but a memory now as Ada Belle pumps her crude alone in the Big Thicket.
In 1977, the National Park System Advisory Board toured the Big Thicket and the Ada Belle Oil Well field. The Board suggested that Ada Belle be studied as a possible National Historic Landmark.