The Ranger Oil Boom started on October 17, 1917, after oil was discovered at the ''J.H. McCleskey No. 1'' drill well when oil roared up from below ground in

Ranger, Texas Ranger is a city in Eastland County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,468 at the 2010 census. Ranger College, a community college, is the second-largest employer in the community. During the 1920s, Ranger, like nearby Cisco, Eastland, ...

. The strike was notable because the threatened exit of Soviet Russia from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

meant a lot of oil output was lost to the Allies. Before WWI Russia accounted for 30% of the world's oil production, more than any other country. On December 15, 1917, an armistice between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers was concluded. According to a story from USA Today, the oil from the Ranger Oil Strike helped win

Discovery

William Knox Gordon made his fortune with the Texas and Pacific Coal Company in

Thurber, Texas Thurber is an unincorporated community in Erath County, Texas, United States (near the Palo Pinto county line), located 75 miles west of Fort Worth. It was, between 1888 and 1921, one of the largest producers of bituminous coal in Texas and th ...

, no relation to the

Texas and Pacific Railway The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T&P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. History Under the influence of ...

although they did business. He saw the writing on the wall and wanted to diversify into the oil and petroleum industry. William Gordon and his Texas Pacific Coal Company of

, drilled a gas well north of Ranger in August 1917, after town civic leaders offered acreage in return for four test wells. Then on October 17, 1917, the ''J.H. McCleskey No. 1'', a mile southwest of Ranger, produced oil at 1200

BOPD A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

. Production came from the

Strawn Formation The Strawn Formation is a geologic formation in Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Texas * Paleontology in Texas Paleontology in Texas refers to paleont ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

s at , the Smithwick

Shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, and the

Marble Falls Formation The Marble Falls Formation is a geologic formation in Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Texas * Paleontology in Texas Paleontology in Texas refers to pa ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

at feet. The Ranger Oil Field production peaked in July 1919 at 80,000 BOPD. The

oil boom An oil boom is a period of large inflow of income as a result of high global oil prices or large oil production in an economy. Generally, this short period initially brings economic benefits, in terms of increased GDP growth, but might later lead ...

brought many seeking jobs, including farm boys and demobilized veterans.

Aftermath

The oil from the reservoir was soon drained and the region's oil boom went bust the J.H. McCleskey No. 1 oil well was abandoned on May 30, 1930.

Bibliography

Notes References * * - Total pages: 320 * * * * Texas Cities in Eastland County, Texas