This well, a producer, set off a flurry of leasing and drilling that was followed by the location of service companies and allied oil and gas industry businesses in Perryton.

   In the 1950s the struggle of the petroleum industry and its people was comparable to the struggle of the farming and ranching people and their industry. These people possessed a love for the industry, the desire for a better living, and often the need to survive was paramount. The industry was and is one of "boom or bust," always at the mercy of government actions and controls.

   Oil and gas exploration have a long history in Ochiltree county. County records show that the first oil lease was filed in Ochiltree county in 1912.

In 1926 a well was drilled on Wolf Creek that caused much excitement and a number of Perryton investors got in on it. There were several other wells drilled in this area in 1926...

   But these wells were drilled with crude equipment by today's standards and drillers were able to go only 1,000 feet deep or so. Later discoveries proved, of course, that oil lay much deeper.

   With the development of the oil and gas industry in the Perryton area, the need for servicing companies expanded and Perryton became host for a great many of these. The Chamber of Commerce developed an industrial area in east Perryton which soon housed offices and brought in such names as Halliburton, Dowell, B-J Hughes, Producers Chemical, Schlumberger, Western, and others who soon established significant payrolls in Perryton