J. J. Moore No. 1 Oil Well

(1.4 miles south) First producing oil well in Scurry County; opened a major West Texas petroleum area. Drilled February to October 1923 by E. I. (Tommy) Thompson, W. W. Lechner and E. E. (Buddy) Fogelson of Loutex Corp., W. A. Reiter located the well. Leon English was field geologist. Drillers were Jesse Thomas, Begossa Murphy, Tom Mann, Charlie Dodson, Sim Taylor. The tool dresser, James O. Jarmon, was the only man working the well from top to bottom. Pat and Mike Moore, the young sons of the landowner, helped to fire the steam roller. The drill struck a pressurized reservoir of "cold air" (nitrogen and helium) unique in Texas at that time. It blew mud and water 60 feet above the well head. Soon harnessed, it replaced steam to operate the drilling. It also refrigerated food and water. Completed to 3575 feet and plugged back to 1800 feet in the San Andres formation, the J. J. Moore No. 1 has yielded over 500,000 barrels of oil; is still producing. Several "dusters" were drilled nearby in 1924. Exploration was further discouraged in the 20s by low prices; eventually, however, here in the Sharon Ridge Field over 2200 wells have been brought in. In 1948 deep wells began to tap the canyon reef in Scurry; the county now has over 4,000 oil wells. (1966).