Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938 Page: 226 of 264
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PAGE TWO-SECTION O TWO
AMARILLO SUNDAY NEWS AND GLOBE AMAFMLLO, TEXAS
GOLDEN ANNTVFRPARY EDITION. 193H.
13 Years of Progress Marked Up by Phillips in Panhandle
1925 Marked i - pANTEX HEADQUARTERS MAKES RAPID STRIDES IN 12 YEARS Conservation
Slart of Boom
1400 quarts of nitro glyc-
erine used to "shoot" the
Mclllroy well, located a mile
due east of Borger, started
an oil flow that eventually
was to make new history in
the Texas Panhandle dis-
trict. It was only lo years
ago—in 1925—that the oil
boom swept over the Pan-
handle leaving in its wake
new towns, railroads, indus-
tries and prosperity.
For some time before the Mclllroy
lease was "shot" there had been
small, scattered production In this
area, but the larger oil companies
had not, been attracted by the
meager showing. Phillips Petroleum
Company had been a producing
company since 1917, operating at
Hanger and Breckenridge as- well
as in Oklahoma, Now it was among
the first to enter and develop this
new field, and Phillips' entry into
the Borger district marked a new
chapter in the company's develop-
ment—as well as the start of a new
era for the people of the Panhandle.
1926 and 1927 were the years of
greatest activity. The W. T. Coble
lease of 400 acres was taken over
by Phillips on March 5. 1926, and
during the life of the field a total
of 31 wells were drilled on this
l^tse In the spring of 1927 the
company had 134 strings of tools
working in the Panhandle and were
employing both directly and in-
directly about, 5,000 men.
First oil well drilled by Phillips
In this area was the William John-
son No. 1, started in January, 1926,
and completed in April of that year.
On the same, day, April 29,, 1926,
the Jerry No, 2 was completed. Both
were producers, the William Johnson
having a natural production of 1.603
barrels and the Jerry No. 2 making
6,360 barrels after shooting. The
first. Phillips camp, consisting of
six box car type houses, was built
on the William Johnson site. The
garage was a sheet Iron shed open
to the weather and of little effect
in keeping dust and sand out of
dismantled truck motors.
Phillips bought, the Panhandle
gasoline plant located south of Bor-
ger, Texas, in 1925, and from that
dafe their record has been one of
constant building, improving, devel-
oping. Roads had to be constructed,
pipe lines run. storage facilities pro-
vided. Telegraph lines, warehouses
and radio stations were built. One
of the greatest handicaps to devel-
opment was the lack of an adequate
water supply, so water wells were
drilled and pumping stations con-
structed. Rapidly this early water
system grew into the present sys-
tem comprising several plants and
many miles of mains and supplying
water to a large area of the Pan-
handle as well as to Phillips refin-
erv, plants and employee camps.
Money, imagination, brains, and
hard work were needed to convert
the prairie ranch land to industrial
use. Phillips and the people of the
Panhandle have worked side by side
for 13 years building soundly and
always planning for the future.
HHi
THE PICTURE BELOW was taken February 19, 1926, and shows the early development of Phillips Pantex PhllllOS Aim
headquarters. Less than 12 years later, September, 1937, the location appeared as shown in the picture to
the right. This photo was taken from a point almost directly in line with the place, where the first picture
was made, but on the opposite side of
Hi
the production office. It shows the
present size of the Rorger production
office, the garage, community hall,
Pantex gasoline plant, radio tower,
etc. Even more interesting is the fact
that this present layout had been com-
pleted almost 10 years ago.
C. A. DANIELS, Supe rintendent
of the production department
with offices in the Rule Building,
Amarillo.
Taxes paid and collected by the
petroleum industry in the past dec-
ade total several times the indus-
try's earnings.
Motorists of 1937 paid nearly one
billion dollars in gasoline taxes to
federal and state governments.
Rail Center
Tons of material to be hauled in—
trainloads of oil held in storage until
means could be found to make ship-
ment to refineries—these wore the
transportation problems that faced
early oil men in the Panhandle
field. Storage was at a premium,
yet, production must continue, and
refining facilities were not available.
Teams and trucks did their best,
but could not keep up with the
ever-rising flood of oil. In those
days, from Borger to Panhandle
was a two day haul, and old timers
recall the ' Half-Way House" which
was a favorite over night stopping
place for the mule skinners and
their teams. The proprietor and
his wife soon save up farming their
few acres and by catering to the
haulers were able to lift, the mort-
gage on the old homestead, with
some to spare.
Rails cannot be laid in a day,"
but the Santa Fe pushed extension
of their line at a rapid pace. Soon
the field crews were able to get
their supplies by rail, and the ship-
pers could relieve their over bur-
dened storage of the precious crude.
Refineries were finally completed,
and train loads of finished products
began their long trek to market—
by rail. Today, Amarillo is the rail-
road center of the Panhandle. The
Santa Fe. Rock Island and Fort
Worth fc Denver lines with terminals
in Amarillo start Texas products on
their journey to the far corners of
the earth.
Oil first made it possible for the
people in the Borger area to en.joy
efficient rail communication with
the entire country. Progressive de-
velopment of service and facilities
have now made the railroads indis-
pensible to the Panhandle and the
oil companies alike.
More than 100,000,000 gallons of
liquefied petroleum gases now are
consumed for domestic and indus-
trial purposes in one year.
£■
TOP PICTURE shows the
car type houses were ne
serve the purpose during
PICTURED BELOW is Ph
the Panhandle landscape
duction methods.
first Phillips camp in the Panhandle. These box
ither modern nor weatherproof, but they had to
the early rush.
illips' Jerry No. 2 spouting a geyser of oil over
, "Wild" wells are now rare under modern pro-
STORAGE was a serious problem. Early tanks were built-in a hurry, and
many leaked badly. The one shown in the top picture has oil seeping
through the seams, and a pool of oil stands inside the dyke.
IN THE LOWER PICTURE is shown the end of the Santa Fe tracks — at
Phillips refinery. The railroads, by rushing construction, greatly relieved
the storage situation.
Early methods of produc-
tion and refining were crude
and wasteful, but, as early
as 1925 the Phillips Petro-
leum Company was making
progress toward conserving
the petroleum resources of
the Panhandle. Oil refiners
had for years prior to this
time been making a high
test gasoline out of natural
gas, but the process was far
from perfect and the result-
ing product was not entirely
satisfactory as an automo-
bile fuel. In addition, the
process left enormous quan-
tities of waste gases which
could not be utilized. Bil-
lions of cubic feet of natural
gas were wasted because it
could not be converted* to
commercial use.
In 1925 the Phillips research de-
partment was organized under the
direction of G. G. Oberfell and R. C.
Alden. They discovered, after ex-
haustive tests and experiments, that
the objectionable wild elements in-
herent in natural gas and the gaso-
line made therefrom could be re-
moved by fractionation. By this new
method the gasoline was put through
an additional refining process and
by subjecting if to heat and pres-
sure, the unstable elements were
separated. Going a step farther, the
Phillips staff then took the unstable
fractions coming from the top of
the fractionator. compressed them
back to a liquid and sold the result-
ing product, as "bottled gas." In
addition to being a valuable con-
servation measure, the bottled gas
industry rendered a much needed
service to homes beyond the reach
of city gas mains. In 1937 over
100.000.000 gallons of bottled ga.-.
were sold to homes, factories and
industrial plants.
Still later the polymeiization
process, developed by Phillip;,
showed the way to further conserva-
tion of natural gas by-products, and
in addition produced a motor fuel
of naturally high anti-knock char-
acteristics. This is the gasoline now
used to blend the popular Poly Ga
on sale by all Phillips dealers in
Amarillo and the Panhandle.
Pipe Line 'Specials'
Like subways, pipe lines go under-
ground, run all night, and set \ery
little notice. But there's going to
be more of them in 1938 and they're
going to carry as many "specials"
as a drug store soda fountain!
Some lines are carrying nine
different petroleum products, guar-
anteeing a wide range in choice to
the receiving end.
Right now, they're saying: "Maki>
mine gasoline." Five new gasoline
pipe lines are being added to the
petroleum industry's 200,000-mile
system. Two hundred thousand
miles, incidentally, are equal to
eight trips around the Equator. Pipe
line transportation is largely respon-
sible for low prices of petroleum
products.
Largely because of low prirrs for
cars, fuels, lubricants, and service,
there is one motor vehicle to everv
five persons in the United States
as compared with the world aver-
age of one to 172.
. t V
V -y -V • v-.jv... i
m&sm
THE OLD ALAMO plant office, now a landmark at the Borger refinery. BARTEX LOADING RACK and Coble tank farm in the early days. The W. T. Coble Ic
Phillips' first big lease in the Panhandle field.
NO. 1 STILL, the original still at the Alamo plant. When Phillips first took
over this plant it had a capacity of only 4 cars a day. GENERAL VIEW of the Borger stills as they look today.
ase was IN FEBRUARY, 1927, the Panhandle district treating plant looked like this.
THIS RECENT PICTURE of the treating plant gives some idea of the vast
development over the past 10 years.
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Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938, newspaper, August 14, 1938; Amarillo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299921/m1/226/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hutchinson County Library, Borger Branch.