Oil and Gas
Discovered in the 1918, and drilled in the 1930's, the Hugoton Gas Field was one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the world. The Hugoton field which is approximately 3000' deep extends from SW Kansas through the Oklahoma Panhandle and into the Texas Panhandle, covering 8500 sq. miles. This is 5 times the size of the state of Rhode Island.
This field along with subsequent deeper discoveries of oil and gas have provided landowners with royalty revenue and cheap fuel for such things as irrigation and domestic use. There are nearly 8000 producing oil and gas wells in Texas County today. For 75 years, Texas County has been one of the largest sources of revenue for the state of Oklahoma through taxes on oil & gas production.
The “pump jack” you see here is used either to pump oil from underground reservoirs or to pump ancient sea water from gas reservoirs to allow the gas to flow up the pipe. The salt water is later put back where it came from through an injection well.
Marker can be reached from the intersection of U.S. 412 and U.S. 54.
Courtesy hmdb.org
