Heritage, Volume 12, Number 3, Summer 1994 Page: 18
30 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Permian Basin
This map shows the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. The circle shows the radius
of 100 miles around Midland.Texas wildcatting was feverish and widespread.
Following on the heels of the Santa
Rita discovery, oil discoveries were made
in Crockett County's World-Powell Field
and Upton County's McCamey Field
both in 1925. Next, oil was found in Crane
County's Church and Fields Pool and the
giant McElroy field that sprawled over the
Crane-Upton County line, in Winkler
County's Hendrick Field and the prolific
Yates Field west of the Pecos River - all in
1926.
During this same period Eddy County,New Mexico, on the far western edge of the
Permian Basin, was the scene of New
Mexico's first commercial oil field, the
Flynn-Welch-Yates Oil Field 16 miles
southeast of Artesia in 1924 and the opening
of the Maljamar Field also in Eddy
County in 1925.
The intensive and frenzied exploration,
drilling, and production activities made a
new central location for an oil headquarters
city the most urgent project of oil men.
San Angelo had boomed during the early
oil bonanza, but it could not sustain itsboom as the oil activities moved so far
west. By the late '20s, San Angelo was
about to relinquish its hold as headquarters
city of the Permian Basin just as
Midland, 140 miles northwest, was being
groomed for the new title.
Midland at the time had several hotels
including the Haley Hotel (formerly the
Yeakel Hotel) and the new Llano Hotel, a
four-story $200,000 structure. The city
had excellent banks and business institutions
besides spacious and elegant homes,
highly ranked schools, handsome
churches, and a free library.
Wilbur Arthur Yeager, oil scout and
lease broker for the Prairie Oil and Gas
Company, moved to Midland from Tulsa
in December 1926. Yeager went to the
office of Paul T. Vickers, Midland's new
Chamber of Commerce manager, and told
him simply that he needed a home. Vickers
was polite but gave the request little action.
Apparently no importance was placed by
the community on oil nor on the high type
citizenry of oil personnel. There simply
were no rent houses in Midland in 1926.
Yeager returned daily, pleading for help.
He finally confronted Vickers and said,
"Oil men flock together like sheep. It is
likely that other oil companies will locate
where Prairie Oil and Gas goes." He then
issued an ultimatum that quickly acquired
Vickers' attention, "I'll give you 'til one
o'clock today to find me a house and if you
don't, I'll move to Odessa!"
Pushed to the edge, Vickers had a wild
and desperate idea. He knew that a certain
Midland merchant planned to open a store
in Odessa and that the merchant's partner
would move there soon. Vickers asked the
partner to move from his own home so
that Yeager could occupy it. Vickers was
told that he had sheer gall, but he made
additional pleas, and in less than an hour,
the partner arranged to move his family
into his in-laws' home for a month until
he could move to Odessa. Yeager immediately
moved into the home and according
to Vickers, "Midland was born as an oil
metropolis!"
Prairie Oil and Gas was not the first oil
company to headquarter in Midland,
however. As early as 1910, the Toyah Oil
and Pipe Line Company established its
general office in the Midland National
Bank Building for the development of theToyah Oil Field of Reeves County. By
1920-21 the Magnolia Petroleum Company,
the Gulf Refining Company, and
the Pierce Oil Company were all estab18 HERITAGE * SUMMER 1994
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 12, Number 3, Summer 1994, periodical, Summer 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45412/m1/18/?rotate=270: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.