Tom Lovell: Storyteller With a Brush Page: 75
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Free Lunch on the Slaughter Ranch
I n the wake of the military and the final retreat of the
Indians who so long had claimed the land, life in the
Permian Basin became geared to the expansion of the
ranching industry. Its pace was that of the horse, an easy
walk most of the time, picking up to a short gallop on
occasion. The wildcatter Carl
Cromwell, using an inexperi-
enced crew of cowboys in
Reagan County, drilled a well
dubbed Santa Rita, after the
Patron Saint of the Impossible.
Life's pace in the Basin was never
to be the same after that morning
of May 28, 1923, when oil sud-
denly went over the top of
Cromwell's wooden derrick.
The Santa Rita was not actual-
ly the Basin's first oilwell.
Production had been established
in Mitchell County, but it was not
on the scale that would be devel-
oped as a result of the Reagan
County discovery. The Santa Rita
well, and those which followed it,
meant financial salvation to many
landowners, hard-pressed by
drought and the ups and downs
of cattle and sheep prices. Stories
are legion in the Basin's folkloreabout ranchmen and farmers pulled back from the brink of
foreclosure by the timely arrival of a landman or a cable
tool rig and crew.
Oil was not an unmixed blessing. It brought an inva-
sion of geologists and drillers, of speculators and fortune
hunters, of builders and boomers. New roads spider-
webbed the grazing lands, and mule teams bladed off oil-
well locations at a heavy cost in grass. When a well came
in, acres around it were often blackened and ruined.
Water was sometimes spoiled. Cattle drank from the slush
pits and were poisoned, or wandered out into them and
drowned. Gates were left open and fences knocked down.
Ranching could be difficult in an oilfield.
But most landowners adjudged the potential income
worth the cost. Seeing the financial benefit to friends and
neighbors, many actively sought the oilmen's favorable
attention. Among them was J. A. Slaughter, featured in Tom
Lovell's painting. Slaughter operated the large and historic
U Lazy S Ranch, pioneered by John B. Slaughter near Post
in Garza County. In 1924 he invited a group of geologists
to his ranch to enjoy a chuckwagon dinner, hoping they
might find inspiration to explore the drilling possibilities.
The painting depicts a hypothetical gathering of men
prominent in the development of Permian Basin oil and
gas production. From the left, clockwise, they include
Berte R. Haigh, geologist, looking through a then-new sur-
veying instrument known as an alidade; Robert W. "Bob"
Patteson, oil scout; O. C. "Kip" Harper, geologist; J. A.
Slaughter, the ranch owner; Charles D. Vertrees, geologist,75
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Kelton, Elmer. Tom Lovell: Storyteller With a Brush, book, 2005; Midland, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1127711/m1/81/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, Library and Hall of Fame.