Rodman-Noel Oil Field

Bill Noel was orphaned at six and raised by grandparents, an aunt and an uncle in Fort Worth. After a business degree from the University of Texas in 1935 he worked as a Gulf roustabout and in 1936 came to the Permian Basin as a chemist at Gulf's Wickett refinery. In 1940 he moved to McCamey and formed Trebol Oil Company with two partners; running a cable-tool rig himself as tool pusher, pumper and production supervisor, he drilled fifty-two producing wells before the company's first dry hole. He said he made his first million before he realized it.

What the plaque says

Rodman-Noel Oil Field Discovered 1953. Initial well, about 2-1/2 miles south of this spot, was drilled by E. G. Rodman and W. D. Noel as No. 1 Radford Grocery. It was completed January 13, 1953, for a natural flowing potential of 960 barrels in 24 hours, from Grayburg formation and at total depth of 1744 feet it is located 1980 feet from the south and west lines of section 1 of the gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe survey in railroad commission district 7C. The field has a number of well completed for natural potentials in excess of 3,000 barrels a day. The drillers Rodman and Noel were oil business veterans at the time they brought in this Upton County field. Already experienced in various phases of petroleum development, E. G. Rodman became an independent producer in Texas in 1938. W. D. Noel became an independent producer in Texas in 1940. Their interests extend into international exploration and other phases of oil development, including manufacture of petrochemicals. Their opening of this field -- which contributed substantially to the 1925-60 Upton County total of 272,628,476 barrels of production-- was made 28 years later than the great boom in McCamey. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rankin Museum (Yates Hotel) — 8.8 mi
  The fireproof hotel Ira Yates built beside the Orient railway depot months after oil came in on his ranch in 1926, kept as it was down to the wicker lobby furniture.
• Mendoza Trail Museum — 9.0 mi
  A 1966 museum in a 1925 oil town, named for the Spanish officer who crossed this country in 1683 at the invitation of the Jumano, with a 1915 bungalow beside it.
• Alley Oop Park and Iraan Museum — 19 mi
  An oil-boom town named for Ira and Ann Yates, where the creator of the caveman comic Alley Oop once worked, and a park of giant cartoon figures beside the town museum.

More markers nearby

• Castle Gap — 4.8 mi
• T.P. Tavern — 7.8 mi
• Site of First Church in Upton County — 8.7 mi
• First State Bank of Rankin — 9.0 mi