Scurry County's Canyon Reef Oil Field

The county's shallow wells produced only about 10,000 barrels in 1938, the Handbook of Texas says, and about 303,000 by 1944. In 1948 its wells produced over 1,112,000 barrels. Output then swung widely: almost 42,583,000 barrels in 1956, about 33,559,000 in 1960, almost 94,173,000 in 1974 and about 13,826,000 in 1990. By January 1, 1991, the county had yielded 1,825,517,000 barrels since 1923. Oil offset the rural losses of the 1950s drought and farm consolidation, though the population fell from 22,779 in 1950 to 15,760 in 1970.

What the plaque says

Attracted international attention by size and engineering achievements. During 1948 four widely dispersed wells penetrated the Canyon Reef Formation at depth of 6,500 feet. Soon more than 2,000 wells defined gigantic fields which contained an estimated four billion barrels of oil. This rapid drilling involved thousands of people--contractors, drillers, engineers, geologists, lawyers, office workers, roughnecks, roustabouts, suppliers. Oil companies poured $300,000,000 into the operations. By 1951 engineers saw that only 20% of Canyon Reef oil could be produced in competitive operations, but recovery could be doubled by pressure maintenance in unitization. Successful formation of Diamond "M", Sacroc, Sharon Ridge Canyon, and Cogdell Units and initiation of fluid injection were events of immense significance. The programs showed by 1955 that free American enterprise can work out voluntarily the most modern and efficient conservation procedures. Thus Scurry County--with a petroleum industry dating from shallow wells in 1923--has become a pioneer in oil history, and is assured a high level, stable economy for many future decades. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Scurry County Museum — 2.5 mi
  Snyder's county museum on the Western Texas College campus, with the rifle used to shoot the white buffalo, an 1878 chuckwagon and the millionth barrel of the Canyon Reef oil boom.
• Heart of West Texas Museum — 23 mi
  Colorado City's museum in a restored downtown house, from a mammoth dug up at Lake Champion in 2001 to an Ice Age bison and the wartime telegrams sent to a local family.
• National WASP WWII Museum — 32 mi
  Hangar 1 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, where the women of the WASP trained to fly every aircraft in the Army's arsenal in World War II, then waited thirty-three years to be called veterans.

More markers nearby

• Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar — steps away
• County Named for Texas Confederate William R. Scurry 1821-1864 — steps away
• Santa Fe Railway in Scurry County — steps away
• Scurry County — steps away