Lou Della Crim No. 1

Malcolm Crim kept a small mercantile store in Kilgore and held scattered leases, some on his mother's farm, when he met Ed Bateman's Fort Worth company. The American Oil and Gas Historical Society reports he believed a fortune-teller had foretold the oil, and that after the well came in he forgave customers' debts and burned their IOUs. It stood about nine miles north of Daisy Bradford No. 3. Wikipedia adds that Crim won Kilgore's first mayoral election, 102 to 0, and served from 1931 to 1933.

What the plaque says

Lou Della Crim No. 1 (600 feet south) Following the discovery of oil in East Texas on October 3, 1930, J. Malcolm Crim of Kilgore believed there was more oil to be found in the area. By October 17 drilling had begun on land belonging to his mother, Lou Della Crim. The well came in on December 28 and was named Lou Della Crim No. 1. Its discovery caused the population of Kilgore to boom from 700 to 10,000 in three days and, ultimately, proved that the East Texas oil field was a major one, covering over 480 square miles. Lou Della Crim No. 1 initially produced 20,000 barrels per day. It was plugged in 1961. (1987)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• East Texas Oil Museum — 3.3 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 7.7 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 21 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 23 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• Kilgore Colored and C. B. Dansby Schools — 3.4 mi
• World's Richest Acre — 3.5 mi
• The Kilgore I&GN-Missouri Pacific Railroad Station — 3.6 mi
• Lou Della Crim Home — 3.6 mi