Masterson, Texas

Last updated

Masterson
Unincorporated community
Mrs Horns 2013.jpg
The Masterson Post Office was located in the Exell General Store. The building in 2013.
USA Texas location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Masterson
Location within the state of Texas
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Masterson
Masterson (the United States)
Coordinates: 35°38′09″N101°57′37″W / 35.63583°N 101.96028°W / 35.63583; -101.96028
Country Flag of the United States.svg United States
State Flag of Texas.svg Texas
County Moore
Elevation
[1]
3,704 ft (1,129 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes
79058
GNIS feature ID1362269 [1]

Masterson is an unincorporated community in southern Moore County, Texas, United States of the Texas Panhandle. It lies along the concurrent U.S. Routes 87 and 287, south of the city of Dumas, the county seat of Moore County. [2]

Contents

According to Olien and Olien, "Out in the country, oil companies built camps for workers and their families in and near oil fields. As elsewhere, the camps for workers were necessary because decent housing and good roads were scant, but camps were also directed toward employee retention by offering amenities of suburban life in the middle of nowhere at rock-bottom prices." [3] : 164 

Masterson was founded in 1927 as a support community for Canadian River Gas plant and gas pipeline, together comprising the Panhandle Field. [4] Masterson was named for Robert Masterson, while the plant was named Bivins Compressor station, after Lee Bivins, another Panhandle rancher. [5] The community eventually included 32 company houses for families and a hotel for single men. [6] The Bivins Elementary School was built in 1937 and educated children through the eighth grade, after which they attended school in Dumas. [7] Starting in 1943, helium was extracted from the gas at the Exell Helium Plant, which is located nearby and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. [8] The government built 75 houses for employee families. [9] The Masterson post office was established in 1950 and was located in the Exell Store, built in 1948. [10] The compressor station was sold to Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) Company in 1951. [6] CIG was acquired by the Coastal Corporation in 1973, [11] which then merged with El Paso Corp. in 1999, which was bought by Kinder Morgan in 2011. Starting in 1963, the housing at both the Bivins and the Exell camps was phased out. [12] The Bivins school was closed in 1978. [13] The station was bought by Pioneer Natural Resources in 2002.

Panhandle Gas Field

Panhandle Field 1.jpg
Panhandle Field 2.jpg
Panhandle Field geologic map (left) and stratigraphic column (right) [14]
Panhandle Field 3.jpg
Panhandle Field 4.jpg
Panhandle Field cross section (left) and helium concentration (right) [15]

The Panhandle Field is a structural trap, characterized by the Amarillo-Wichita Uplift or sometimes referred to as the buried "Amarillo mountains", which is bounded by three sedimentary basins: the Anadarko Basin to the north, the Dalhart Basin to the west, and the Palo Duro Basin to the south. [16] [17] This tectonic uplift occurred in the Late Mississippian to Early Pennsylvanian time and was sufficient to expose and erode the Precambrian granitic and rhyolitic basement complex forming a granitic wash, which was subsequently submerged and buried by marine sediments in the Permian (specifically, the Wolfcampian carbonates). [18] [17] The granitic wash and these marine sediments form the pay zones but the "gas, oil and water cut across formational boundaries". [19] The Wolfcampian marine sediments include an arkosic lime, an arkosic dolomite, the Moore County Limestone, the White Dolomite, and the Brown Dolomite. [19] The Leonardian Panhandle Lime, or Wichita, and Red Cave overlay these Wolfcampian sediments, with the anhydrite and dense-dolomite nature of the Wichita forming the reservoir seal. [14] [20] The source for the oil, gas and helium accumulations are the sedimentary rocks of Pennsylvanian age in the Palo Duro and Anadarko Basins. [21] [22] The helium would have been derived from uraniferous rocks and radiogenic in origin. [23] The Panhandle Field has a pressure which is about 400 psi lower than the surrounding basins, which allows gases to migrate into it. [24] Although low, the pressure is at normal hydrostatic pressure relative to the water table. [25] Charles N. Gould mapped the John Ray Dome, which was drilled by the Amarillo Oil Company in 1918 resulting in the Panhandle Field discovery. [21] Drilled to a depth of 2,395 feet, the well, No. 1 Masterson C, produced 5 million cubic feet of gas per day at a pressure of 420 psi. [26] Oil in the Panhandle Field was discovered in 1921 with Gulf Producing Company's No. 2 Burnett well, producing 200 barrels per day. [27]

Charles N. Gould

After founding the geology department at the University of Oklahoma in 1900, Charles N. Gould worked summers doing field work for Frederick Haynes Newell, first director of the United States Reclamation Service (later known as the United States Bureau of Reclamation), investigating "the underground water resources of a portion of the southern part of the Great Plains." [28] His first summer trip through the Panhandle in 1903 resulted in Water Supply Paper 154 of the United States Geological Survey, Geology and Water Resources of the Eastern Portion of the Panhandle of Texas, and a similar trip in 1905 resulted in Water Supply Paper 191, Geology and Water Resources of the Western Portion of the Panhandle of Texas. [29] It was during this second trip Gould "explored and prepared a geological map of Palo Duro Canyon...giving names to the formations" and "studied the anticlines along the Canadian River, indications of which he saw in 1903. [30]

In 1908, Gould became director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey and in 1916 was asked by "M.C. Nobles, a wholesale grocer of Amarillo" if he knew of "any oil and gas prospects..in the Panhandle" to which Gould replied "there appeared to be several big anticlines or domes in that region" but it "would probably be necessary to send a Plane table party into the field and prepare a detailed contour map of the area." [31] Nobles organized the Amarillo Oil Company on 24 April 1917, from ten businessmen investing one thousand dollars each, and hired Gould to survey an area that included Lee Bivins' ranch south of the Canadian River, and R.B. Masterson's ranch north of the river. [32] The resultant map showed a large dome fifteen miles in diameter with four hundred feet of relief, which Gould named the John Ray Dome after a nearby butte. [32] [33] [3]

The company bought oil and gas leases on 64,000 acres around this "typical oil-and-gas structure" and Gould received one-sixteenth of the acreage, plus one thousand dollars, and paid expenses for his services. [34] The nearest oil or gas was 225 miles away at the time which prompted the following speech by Gould before C.M. Hapgood drilled the company's first well, "No one knows whether or not the Lord has put any gas or oil in the Panhandle of Texas, but if there should be any oil or gas in this part of the world, this would appear to be the best place to find it. And, because this seems to be a very large dome, it is my judgement that one is more likely to find gas, rather than oil, in the first well drilled on the apex, or high point, of the dome." [35] The well, Masterson Number 1, encountered several gas-bearing sands over its 2,200 feet depth in Dec. 1918, and flowed eleven million cubic feet a day. [36] [33] [3]

Gould later discovered the Cliffside Dome, near the station Cliffside northwest of Amarillo, a large deposit of helium gas, the 666 dome, the north slope of which is where the Borger Oil Field was located, and named the buried granite ridge in the Panhandle the "Amarillo Mountains". [37] Gould's philosophy, "we always told our clients, the business of prospecting for oil or gas was first, last, and all the time a gamble. No one knows in advance of drilling what will be found at any particular place. There is always risk in drilling for oil and all the geologist can do is to minimize that risk." [38]

Notes

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Masterson, Texas
  2. ↑ The Road Atlas '08. Rand McNally. 2008. p. 98.
  3. 1 2 3 Olien, Diana; Olien, Roger (2002). Oil in Texas, The Gusher Age, 1895-1945. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 139–140. ISBN   0292760566.
  4. ↑ George (1994), p. 29.
  5. ↑ George (1994), p. 60.
  6. 1 2 George (1994), p. 35.
  7. ↑ George (1994), p. 74.
  8. ↑ George (1994), p. 47.
  9. ↑ George (1994), p. 50.
  10. ↑ George (1994), p. 59.
  11. ↑ George (1994), p. 132.
  12. ↑ George (1994), p. 80.
  13. ↑ George (1994), p. 81.
  14. 1 2 Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), pp. G20–G21.
  15. ↑ Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), pp. G36–G51.
  16. ↑ Pippin (1970), pp. 204, 206.
  17. 1 2 Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), p. G1.
  18. ↑ Pippin (1970), p. 208.
  19. 1 2 Pippin (1970), pp. 209–210.
  20. ↑ Pippin (1970), p. 216.
  21. 1 2 Pippin (1970), p. 204.
  22. ↑ Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), p. G55.
  23. ↑ Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), pp. G50, G55.
  24. ↑ Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), p. G50.
  25. ↑ Pierce, Gott & Mytton (1964), p. G52.
  26. ↑ Pippin (1970), p. 205.
  27. ↑ Pippin (1970), p. 206.
  28. ↑ Gould (2003), p. 117.
  29. ↑ Gould (2003), pp. 125, 127–128.
  30. ↑ Gould (2003), pp. 127–128.
  31. ↑ Gould (2003), pp. 144, 191–192.
  32. 1 2 Gould (2003), p. 192.
  33. 1 2 Archer, Jeanne; Taras, Stephanie (2009). Touching Lives: The Lasting Legacy of the Bivins Family. Tell Studios Inc. pp. 84–87. ISBN   9780974914862.
  34. ↑ Gould (2003), p. 193.
  35. ↑ Gould (2003), pp. 193–194.
  36. ↑ Gould (2003), p. 194.
  37. ↑ Gould (2003), pp. 194, 196.
  38. ↑ Gould (2003), p. 195.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the petroleum industry in the United States</span>

The history of the petroleum industry in the United States goes back to the early 19th century, although the indigenous peoples, like many ancient societies, have used petroleum seeps since prehistoric times; where found, these seeps signaled the growth of the industry from the earliest discoveries to the more recent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spindletop</span> Oil field in southern Texas, United States

Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindletop struck oil. The Spindletop gusher blew for 9 days at a rate estimated at 100,000 barrels (16,000 m3) of oil per day. Gulf Oil and Texaco, now part of Chevron Corporation, were formed to develop production at Spindletop. The Spindletop discovery led the United States into the oil age. Prior to Spindletop, oil was primarily used for lighting and as a lubricant. Because of the quantity of oil discovered, burning petroleum as a fuel for mass consumption suddenly became economically feasible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potter County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Potter County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 118,525. Its county seat is Amarillo. The county was created in 1876 and organized in 1887. It is named for Robert Potter, a politician, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and the Texas Secretary of the Navy. Potter County is included in the Amarillo metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carson County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Carson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 5,807. The county seat is Panhandle. The county was founded in 1876 and later organized in 1888. It is named for Samuel Price Carson, the first secretary of state of the Republic of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amarillo, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Amarillo is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the most populous city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The estimated population of Amarillo was 200,393 as of April 1, 2020, comprising nearly half of the population of the panhandle. The Amarillo metropolitan area had an estimated population of 308,297 as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Permian Basin (North America)</span> Large sedimentary basin in the US

The Permian Basin is a large sedimentary basin in the southwestern part of the United States. It is the highest producing oil field in the United States, producing an average of 4.2 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2019. This sedimentary basin is located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

The abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis proposes that most of earth's petroleum and natural gas deposits were formed inorganically, commonly known as abiotic oil. Mainstream theories about the formation of hydrocarbons on earth point to an origin from the decomposition of long-dead organisms, though the existence of hydrocarbons on extraterrestrial bodies like Saturn's moon Titan indicates that hydrocarbons are sometimes naturally produced by inorganic means, however, these theories have not been proven. A historical overview of theories of the abiogenic origins of hydrocarbons has been published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Texas Oil Field</span> Oil and gas field in east Texas

The East Texas Oil Field is a large oil and gas field in east Texas. Covering 140,000 acres (57,000 ha) and parts of five counties, and having 30,340 historic and active oil wells, it is the second-largest oil field in the United States outside Alaska, and first in total volume of oil recovered since its discovery in 1930. Over 5.42 billion barrels (862,000,000 m3) of oil have been produced from it to-date. It is a component of the Mid-continent oil province, the huge region of petroleum deposits extending from Kansas to New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Helium Reserve</span> Strategic helium reserve of the United States

The National Helium Reserve, also known as the Federal Helium Reserve, is a strategic reserve of the United States, which once held over 1 billion cubic meters of helium gas. The helium is stored at the Cliffside Storage Facility about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Amarillo, Texas, in a natural geologic gas storage formation, the Bush Dome reservoir. The reserve was established with the enactment of the Helium Act of 1925. The strategic supply provisioned the noble gas for airships, and in the 1950s became an important source of coolant during the Cold War and Space Race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anadarko Basin</span>

The Anadarko Basin is a geologic depositional and structural basin centered in the western part of the state of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, and extending into southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado. The basin covers an area of 50,000 square miles (130,000 km2). By the end of the 20th Century, the Anadarko Basin was producing the largest amount of natural gas in the United States. Notable oil and gas fields within the basin include the Hugoton-Panhandle Gas Field, West Edmond Field, Union City Field and the Elk City Field. The basin is also the only commercial source of iodine in the United States and a major producer of helium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colorado Interstate Gas</span>

Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) is a major producer of natural gas, connected to major supply basins in the Rocky Mountains and production areas in the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma, western Kansas, and Wyoming. Originally an independent company, CIG is now a subsidiary of El Paso Corp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugoton Gas Field</span>

Hugoton Gas Field is a large natural gas field in the U.S. states of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Its name is derived from the town of Hugoton, Kansas, near which the Hugoton Field was first discovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spraberry Trend</span> Large oil field in the Permian Basin of West Texas

The Spraberry Trend is a large oil field in the Permian Basin of West Texas, covering large parts of six counties, and having a total area of approximately 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2). It is named for Abner Spraberry, the Dawson County farmer who owned the land containing the 1943 discovery well. The Spraberry Trend is itself part of a larger oil-producing region known as the Spraberry-Dean Play, within the Midland Basin. Discovery and development of the field began the postwar economic boom in the nearby city of Midland in the early 1950s. The oil in the Spraberry, however, proved difficult to recover. After about three years of enthusiastic drilling, during which most of the initially promising wells showed precipitous and mysterious production declines, the area was dubbed "the world's largest unrecoverable oil reserve."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico (United States)</span> Major petroleum-producing area

Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico is a major source of oil and natural gas in the United States. The western and central Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, is one of the major petroleum-producing areas of the United States. Oil production from US federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time annual high of 1.65 million barrels per day in 2017. Oil production is expected to continue the upward trend in 2018 and 2019, based on ten new oil fields which are planned to start production in those years. According to the Energy Information Administration, "Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 15% of total U.S. crude oil production and federal offshore natural gas production in the Gulf accounts for 5% of total U.S. dry production."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas oil boom</span> Period of change and economic growth in Texas

The Texas oil boom, sometimes called the gusher age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in the U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas. The find was unprecedented in its size (worldwide) and ushered in an age of rapid regional development and industrialization that has few parallels in U.S. history. Texas quickly became one of the leading oil-producing states in the U.S., along with Oklahoma and California; soon the nation overtook the Russian Empire as the top producer of petroleum. By 1940 Texas had come to dominate U.S. production. Some historians even define the beginning of the world's Oil Age as the beginning of this era in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helium production in the United States</span> Overview of the inert gas in the North American country

Helium production in the United States totaled 73 million cubic meters in 2014. The US was the world's largest helium producer, providing 40 percent of world supply. In addition, the US federal government sold 30 million cubic meters from storage. Other major helium producers were Algeria and Qatar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helium Act of 1925</span> United States statute

Helium Act of 1925, 50 USC § 161, is a United States statute drafted for the purpose of conservation, exploration, and procurement of helium gas. The Act of Congress authorized the condemnation, lease, or purchase of acquired lands bearing the potential of producing helium gas. It banned the export of helium, for which the US was the only important source, thus forcing foreign airships to use hydrogen lift gas. The Act empowered the United States Department of the Interior and United States Bureau of Mines with the jurisdiction for the experimentation, production, repurification, and research of the lighter than air gas. The Title 50 codified law provided the authority for the creation of the National Helium Reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petrolia Oil Field (Texas)</span> Oil field in Clay County, Texas, U.S.

Petrolia Oil Field is a North Texas segment of land located in Clay County, Texas and the Great Plains. The hydrocarbon exploration site was geographically within 10 miles (16 km) of the Red River of the South. The oil and gas reservoir was located between Texas State Highway 79 and Texas State Highway 148 converging at Petrolia, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliffside Gas Field (Texas)</span>

Cliffside Gas Field is located in the Texas Panhandle bearing 9 miles (14 km) west of Texas Highway 87 and 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Amarillo, Texas. The Great Plains Panhandle area is located in Potter County, Texas within the vicinity of the unincorporated community Cliffside, Texas.

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 3,342 feet (1,019 m) below ground in Ranger, Texas. The strike was notable because the threatened exit of Soviet Russia from World War I 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 World War I.

References

See also

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.