Historical Marker
First Producing Oil Well in Coke County
Historical marker location:
Silver, Texas
( 1 mile east of Silver at intersection of FM 1672 and SH 208)
Marker installed: 1968
Sun Oil Company's well - No. 1 Allen Jameson -- was staked in Sept. 1946, and struck oil Nov. 17.
Intermittent drilling had gone on in Coke County for 30 years, but this discovery began a county-wide oil boom.
Drilled by the Dallas firm of Roberts & Hawkins, the well hit pay dirt at 6,230 feet in fossil-bearing limestone 280 million years old. In a 24-hour test it flowed 168 barrels.
Coke County recently ranked among the top quarter of oil-producing counties in Texas, with its 18 fields exceeding 6.4 million barrels annually. (1968).