First Producing Gas Well in Colorado County

Garwood's 1932 gas was Colorado County's first real payoff after three decades of looking. Companies and individuals had searched the county for oil since 1901, and the Handbook of Texas dates the first significant find to 1932. Oil followed: by 1990 the county had produced more than 31.5 million barrels, and by the end of 2004 about 41.2 million since 1932. Commercial gravel digging, under way by 1906, grew alongside it, and the county has ranked among the state's leading gravel producers since the 1930s. Both trades slumped in the 1980s and had partly recovered by 1990.

What the plaque says

First Producing Gas Well in Colorado County Completed on July 17, 1932, as Nelson No. 1 Well, at a depth of 4,052 ft; was drilled by Coyle-Concord Oil Company, owner of 30,000 acres of block leases in area. Many other wells were soon drilled as a result of success here. Site called Garwood Field. In 1932 no market was found for this gas. Two extensions to the field were later located and commercial outlets obtained. Gas production has contributed to prosperity of the county. Texas reserves of natural Gas are nearly 119 trillion cu.ft., or 42.3% of United States reserves. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge — 17 mi
  Ten thousand acres of native coastal prairie northeast of Eagle Lake, kept for a critically endangered grouse, many of whose birds are hatched in captivity and released here.
• Stafford Opera House — 21 mi
  A cattleman's bank and theater of 1886 on the Columbus square, in a river town Sam Houston burned in 1836 and a county marked by a long feud and a 1935 lynching.
• Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church (Dubina) — 33 mi
  The church of Texas's first Czech settlement, under a sky-blue painted ceiling that was whitewashed in the 1950s and brought back from faint traces by its own parishioners.

More markers nearby

• Garwood — 0.9 mi
• Nada — 2.2 mi
• Lakeside Sugar Refinery — 9.8 mi
• Community of Egypt — 10 mi