The Santa Rita No. 1 -- Texon TX - Preserved Machines on Public Display on Waymarking.com

Ah, the mythical Santa Rita No 1, the creaky oil well that transformed the University of Texas and gave rise to the best Aggie Joke of all time.

The machinery here is what remains after the main oil well itself was relocated to a place of pride on the University of Texas Campus in 1958. The derrick, and associated operating equipment are all still here at Texon, a few hundred yards from a historic marker that stands along the US 67, which reads as follows:

"SANTA RITA NO. 1

Discovery well for Big Lake oil field. First gusher in Permian Basin; first University of Texas producer. On land once thought almost worthless. Fruit of the faith of Big Lake lawyer Rupert Ricker. Though in 1919 no oil had been found within 100 miles, Ricker got leases on 431,360 acres of University of Texas land in Crockett, Irion, Reagan and Upton counties. Soon working with him were P. G. Stokes, Big Spring; Frank Pickrell and Haymon Krupp, El Paso; and others.

Their wildcat well, 1/2 mile south of this site, on Ollie Parker's Ranch, was drilled by Carl Cromwell. Dee Locklin was tool dresser. Slow and hard drilling made crew name well for Santa Rita, Patronness of the Impossible. 4 years, 2 months and a day after permit was filled, and at 3,055 feet, well pressure tossed the rig's bucket high into the air. Santa Rita was a producer! The date was May 28, 1923.

This day the Permian Basin, since acclaimed one of the greatest oil regions in the world, had its first big find. Other spectacular fields were to follow.

Multi-millions in royalty dollars have since made the University of Texas one of the world's most heavily endowed schools. Original rig that brought in Santa Rita now is on the University campus. (1965)"

The two largest state universities in Texas are land grant schools. In 1881, the State Legislature assigned two million acres of land in some of the least hospitable and most desolate areas of west Texas -- lands that nobody but railroads and rattlesnakes wanted -- to support not one but TWO state universities: The University of Texas (UT) and that Other State School, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (A&M).

The Legislature required that any wealth generated from the University lands would be deposited into the Permanent University Fund (PUF), which would be used to support the operations of these universities so that the Legislature wouldn’t have to appropriate more state funds for that purpose.

When the lands were designated in the 1880s, the lands and the shares of the PUF dollars were to be evenly split between UT and A&M. But the Aggies, who were fully aware of the lack of agricultural potential of much of the University lands, negotiated a land sale with UT, ostensibly to raise cash for a building program.

A&M sold UT all their rights to some of the worst, most arid, least useful waste land in the vast University land grant - lands that had been assigned to A&M - for a few dollars per acre. In exchange, A&M gave up its claim to PUF revenues from the lands it sold UT forever. The UT regents jumped at the chance to buy more land, and made the deal without checking out the merchandise first. Thus the income from PUF lands went from a 50-50 split to 2/3-1/3 spilt -- 2/3 to the University of Texas, and 1/3 to A&M.

For many years this looked like a great deal for the Aggies, who kept the arable useful land they had been granted, and were able to make a reasonable return on leasing it for grazing and farming. UT, on the other hand, could do nothing with the hundreds of thousands of acres of arid desert-like alkali lands it had purchased – nothing could grow there, and it was unsuitable for livestock. Most of the income UT generated from these waste lands came in the form of Right-of-Way lease payments from railroads that passed through.

Worse, UT Regents had to keep going back to the Legislature for extra funding to run the University of Texas. Every time they did, they got to hear about how they had stupidly bought waste land that wasn't fit for man nor beast at an inflated price of $2 an acre.

The University limped along for decades trying to support itself with grazing or lease income on the acreage, interspersed with appropriations from a very stingy State Legislature.

Around 1900, a team of UT geologists fanned out over UT’s share of the land grant, trying to determine if there might be oil or some other exploitable natural resource somewhere. In 1916 one UT geologist thought that oil might be found there, since oil has been found in a similar formation in Pecos Texas, but most geologists disagreed with his assessment.

After WWI the Legislature changed the land-grant law to allow the Universities to lease their lands to individuals for oil and gas exploration. In 1922 a wildcat driller named Frank Pickerell (an entrepreneur with no prior oil drilling experience) leased the waste University of Texas lands, hired a crew, and picked the site of his first well, which he named in honor of Saint Rita, the patron saint of impossible tasks.

And where was this well located? On the lands sold by A&M to UT, of course!!

After nearly 2 years of drilling, the well came in on 28 May 1923, and EVERYTHING CHANGED -- for the University, for Pickerell, and for the state of Texas.

A&M’s great deal they had been chuckling about for decades became in an instant the first – and still the best – Aggie joke.

In the 1950s the original wooden Santa Rita No 1 oil well was disassembled and moved to the campus of the University of Texas. Santa Rita No. 1's parts were replaced at that time. The well produced intermittently until it was finally capped for good in 1990.

With its vast oil wealth, today the University of Texas has an endowment second only to that of Harvard's. The Aggies are still living down that land deal.

]:> Hook 'em Horns!! (Mama Blaster is a proud graduate of the University of Texas, if anyone was wondering.)

Type of Machine: oil well Year the machine was built: 1919 Year the machine was put on display: 1958 Is there online documentation for this machine: [Web Link]

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