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

Ranger, Texas Ranger is a city in Eastland County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,300 at the 2020 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 Soviet Russia's threatened exit from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

meant its 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 area, unincorporated community in Erath County, Texas, Erath County, Texas, United States (near the Palo Pinto County, Texas, Palo Pinto county line), located 75 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas, Fort Worth. It was, be ...

. It drilled a gas well north of Ranger in August 1917, after town civic leaders offered acreage in return for four test wells. On October 17, 1917 the J.H. McCleskey No. 1 oil well a mile southwest of Ranger produced oil at 1200 barrels per day from the Strawn Formation

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

s at , the Smithwick

Shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

, and the Marble Falls Formation

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

at feet. The Ranger Oil Field production peaked in July 1919 at 80,000 barrels per day. 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 ended. The J.H. McCleskey No. 1 was abandoned on May 30, 1930.

Bibliography

Notes References * * - Total pages: 320 * * * * 32.4504, -98.6928, display=title Cities in Eastland County, Texas