First Oil Well Drilled in Eastland County

The McCleskey well was not Gordon's first try at Ranger. The Nannie Walker No. 1, drilled first, disappointed at the start, producing gas before it later blew in oil. Once the McCleskey came in, the Handbook of Texas says, the oil industry reappraised Texas as a producing region, and fears of a national oil shortage eased. By June 1919 Texas Pacific Coal and Oil stock had climbed from thirty dollars to $1,250 a share and the company was drilling twenty-two wells nearby. Eight refineries were open or being built, and Ranger's four banks held $5 million in deposits.

What the plaque says

The J.H. McCleskey No. 1 Discovery Well of the Ranger Pool was drilled by Warren Wagner under the supervision of W.K. Gordon of the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company, July 2-October 27, 1917. Initial production was 1600 barrels with three million feet of gas. Abandoned May 30, 1930 after producing 275,000 barrels of oil.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 9.4 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 18 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.

More markers nearby

• Roaring Ranger — steps away
• Site of J.H. McCleskey No. 1, Discovery Well of the Ranger Oil Boom — 1.5 mi
• Merriman Cemetery — 3.3 mi
• Mount Zion Cemetery — 8.5 mi