H. A. Rathke Interview - H. A. Rathke Interview [part 2 of 3]

Primary tabs

  • PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL TOPIC: Spindletop, Batson, Electra, Saratoga, Burkburnett Areas NAME: Rathke, H. A. INTERVIEWERS: Boatright, Mody C.; Kelly, Louise; Williams, J, W PLACE: Wichita Falls, Texas TAPE NO. 131 DATE: 9-13-53 RESTRICTIONS: None
  • R.- in all wells, didn't have all the shallow ones. But they were there anyhow in some wells.
  • K.- What was Electra like when you first went there in '13?
  • R.- Just a tenthouse and flies and hot.
  • K.- Hot and bad streets?
  • R.- Didn't have any, didn't find any streets.
  • K.- Just old trails running around?
  • R.- Just a bunch of dust. And then that fall and it began to raining. And then you'd bog down. You couldn't drive down the street. You couldn't drive your team down the street. It was all bog holes then.
  • K.- Well, there were not very many stores there either?
  • R.- Well, there was a few there. Yes. There was more there than you think for, but not many. But there was more there than you'd think for. A bank there, two banks and--
  • K.- A couple of lumber yards.
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- Hotels.
  • R.- Yes, hotels there.
  • K.- Grocery stores.
  • R.- Yeh.
  • K.- And they had a post office of a sort?
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- And a big hitching post out in front. Was Electra very wild at that time?
  • R.- No, it wasn't. No, Electra was an orderly town always, always has been. Far as I knew it was. But it was safe to go in and out day or night anytime there. And nobody ever would molest you.
  • K.- Was that because of the slow growth of the field, do you think?
  • R.- No, it was pretty fast. There was a lot of people there. You know, they just had offices there that kinda looked after them. They would report to the county seat from there. At Batson they didn't. A little different.
  • K.- Well, the people who were there originally kept control of things, didn't they?
  • R.- Pretty well, yes,they did.
  • K.- That's the reason for--
  • R.- Good people, good people. Yes, they were good people. You see, Electra was a town quite a while. Waggoner, you know, named that Electra after his daughter, his daughter, Electra. It used to be Beaver Creek.
  • K.- Beaver Switch.
  • R.- Beaver Switch, yes. Yes, Beaver Switch.
  • K.- From the Beaver Creek.
  • R.- Yes, that's right. But it was Electra when I went there. To me, it's Electra.
  • B.- Well, that was ranch country, wasn't it?
  • R.- Huh?
  • B.- Ranch country?
  • R.- Well, they raised wheat too. Yes, they raised wheat too know old man Brewer told me he and Bar Wise set over there at the corner of their place, showed me where they sat down at. And they was wondering where they was going to get the next dollar to eat on. Wheat, I think, was worth, I don't know, very cheap. Didn't raise much either. These old timers had a pretty hard time in here
  • these drought years, you know. They just didn't have Uncle Sam to go to, to get their money. They had to make it, go with themselves someway.
  • B.- And you were working for the Gulf at Electra?
  • R. - Oh yes. Yes, I worked for them until 1919.
  • K.- Well, they drilled out in the northeast and south--
  • R.- Oh, yes.
  • K.- But they never did drill west.
  • R.- No, no.
  • K.- That was the Texas Company's--
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- ... lease, wasn't it?
  • R.- Yes. They didn't own that stuff. They was too late getting that stuff in there, or didn't want it at the time they got the Miller lease. They could have gotten a lot of that stuff early, I imagine they could, I don't know. But anyway, they didn't own anything west of there at all.
  • K.- The Texas Company got in first.
  • R - But they got lots of stuff on the Burnet Ranch, you know. They got a lot of stuff in there.
  • K.- Yes, on toward Iowa Park.
  • R.- Beaver Creek, yes. South of Beaver Creek, you know, they owned lots of stuff in there, an awful lot of stuff.
  • K.- And now the Texas Company got in north, north and west?
  • R. - Yes. K.- First.
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- Then you came in and went northeast.
  • R.- Yes, went northeast on the Miller lease.
  • K.- .... and south.
  • R.- Uh-huh. Had Bywaters, had the Bywaters there too.
  • K.- Yes. Well, that is right adjoining the Texas Company.
  • R.- To the south.
  • K.- Well, didn't they have a line fight along there trying to drill offset wells?
  • R.- Well, no more than anywhere else. They've always had that, you know. I remember when I went on my first well there that, forgot this old man that had charge of the property offsetting across the road from us there, the Bywaters. He was a cable tool man, and he said he hated these rotaries now. He didn't mind, he didn't miss words telling me about it either. He said, "The doggone thing can't make a well, says we just drilled one with a cable tool just right across the fence there, and a dry hole. Says you can't make a well over there, there ain't none here."
  • Well, I did make one. Then I went south and deepened another hole. They had a 1300 foot hold. I deepened to the 1600 and it flowed. This old man got a rotary rig in there then, He couldn't keep up with me, you know. I was getting too fast. He got a rotary rig up. And I'll have to tell you more about that, he's the best friend I ever had as long as he lived. He'd come to see me every time I was near around anywhere. And I would him too. Best friend I ever had. But he just didn't think the rotary could do it, you know. He was a cable tool man and he thought that was the only way to drill a
  • well, that's all. He found out afterwards no matter what you drilled with to make a hole, why oil was just the same.
  • B.- Did you find much rivalry between the workers, rotary and cable?
  • R.- Quite a bit. Yes, there was quite a bit. Cable tool men didn't think the rotary men knew much. And they didn't, and they had a right to, they didn't. But we was making wells anyhow.
  • B.- One man told me that he couldn't bunk 'em in the same house. He had to have two bunk houses.
  • R.- No, that didn't work. No, that wouldn't work very well. Be too many black eyes next morning.
  • B.- What did they call each other, swivel necks or--
  • R.- Yes, rope toteler and swivel necks. Rope toteler--
  • B.- Rope Toteler was cable tool?
  • R.- Cable tool, yes.
  • B.- Where were these cable men from? Did they come in from the other states?
  • R.- The East. All from the East. Pennsylvania and all through that country up there. See they all came down through that, followed the field, you know, from Pennsylvania, wherever it was, down the other states through there, on down here.
  • K.- A number of them came in through Illinois and down through there.
  • R.- Oh, yes. Pennsylvania, Illinois. And it's just like I say they followed the field as they developed, just as same as we do here you know. And all they done here is just follow them
  • wherever they developed. That's where the labor went, you know.
  • B.- Now these rotary men would be mostly native Texans, wouldn't they?
  • R.- Yes, they came from South Texas. And this stuff was so much different. That's the reason they had a hard time to start with it. Too hard to drill. They thought it was because they was used to that soft stuff down there. You got to drill a little harder. And they thought it was too hard to drill. It wasn't. It was a lot harder than that stuff in South Texas, all right now, but you could drill it. And there wasn't any danger of you losing the hole, save it. You could take anybody could run a piece of machinery could drill a well, you know. He wouldn't lose anything.
  • K.- About how many wells did you drill or do you have any idea?
  • R.- No. but I wished I knew, wished I knew. I drilled them continuously. I mean off of one on to the other continuously all the time, outside of the little fishing jobs I'd have, you know. When I got through I was back on the drilling again. When I got through with a fishing job I went back. I had a rig that I went back to when I got through. Continue right on to where I took off with drilling again.
  • B.- Well, how long did it take you to drill a well, say 1600 feet?
  • R.- Where?
  • B.- Electra?
  • R.- Oh, it took about 15 days. Should have drilled it in two.
  • K.- Well that's faster than the Vergus wells were drilled up there.
  • R.- Oh, yes. It took sometime two or three months to drill some of those wells.
  • K.- Well, I know that Clay-Co well was several months--
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- ..... drilling. I think they started about October through the 3rd of April.
  • R.- Yes, they--
  • K.- So that was a good deal faster in that field than those first ones. Did you ever get up into Sunshine Hills?
  • R.- Yes, I drilled quite a lot of wells at Sunshine Hill too. All the way to Burkburnett and in Burkburnett.
  • K.- In that second field.
  • R.- Yes, all the way through that. And then plumb back down to Beaver Creek. And down in Archer County, Holliday. Drilled wells all through there for the Gulf.
  • K.- You went to other oil fields?
  • R.- Huh?
  • K.- You went further afield than just Electra and [inaudible]
  • R.- Followed it just like I say.
  • K.- Did you get into any of the deep oil or was that later?
  • R.- We didn't have anything to drill a deep well with then. Couldn't get deep oil. Had to be shallow or none.
  • K.- About 1600 feet then is---
  • R.- 2,000 feet. 2,000 feet, twenty-two, three hundred feet. About 25 hundred feet, that's about a limit. Getting pretty deep after you got past 2,000 feet.
  • K.- How did you happen to decide to drill on your own and get away from Gulf?
  • R.- Well, I figured I could make a go of it for them. If I couldn't make it go for myself there was something wrong with me. That was a hard decision to make. To leave a life-time job to go to work for yourself, you know. I had a life-time job to go to work as long as I did what they wanted me to do, you know. And then to quit and go to work for myself. And should I happen to be a failure, I knew what it meant. It was a hard thing to decide because I had a living there. Didn't make any money but had a living, you know, always. But I wasn't satisfied with that, I wanted to make a little money, and I did. I, the first six months after I went to contracting, made more money than I did the whole time I worked for wages all my life.
  • B.- In six months?
  • R.- Yes sir. Made more actual cash money than I did the whole time I worked all my life all put together.
  • B.- Now that was contracting?
  • R.- Contracting. K.- Contracting.
  • B.- You weren't producing oil at that time?
  • R.- No, no. I just contracted. Drilled them myself too, I drilled them one time by myself. Hired a night driller and I was there most of the nights too myself. Just day and night then.
  • B.- Did you have several rigs running?
  • R.- Just had one.
  • B.- Just had one.
  • R.- Then I bought another one later and had two.
  • K.- You were doing that by yourself then. That was before you formed a partnership?
  • R.- Yes, no. I first went in partnerships with the Panhandle first one year. And then I started by myself and then Shaw and I got to be partners then. Pretty soon after I started for myself he---
  • K.- What was Mr, Shaw's first name?
  • R.- Bert.
  • K.- Bert Shaw. Want it on the record. How did you happen to meet up with Mr. Shaw? Had you known him before?
  • R.- He was vice-president of the Panhandle Refining Company while I was in partnerships with them, you see. And that's where I ----
  • K.- That was just an individual partnership?
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- I mean as far as he was concerned?
  • R.- Yes, we was just individual partners. We was partners for a while and then we incorporated. Then we got starting production and then we incorporated then, when we got started getting production, you see.
  • K.- What was the first well you drilled on your own?
  • R.- Well, he and I quit ---
  • K.- Tell us about that.
  • R.- Oh, we divided our stuff up in '28, and I never got any to my own except till after '28, but the first well I still own now. He and I drilled it together, but I own it all now. I bought it, a
  • the other interest out. See when it was divided up, why that well fell to me, you know. And then Artis Bahockaney [?] had some interest in that, bought him out too. He wanted to sell and I bought him out. Orville Bullington had some in there and I bought him out. And I bought them all out. And got all that to myself now, that old original well. I wouldn't take anything for it because that's--
  • K.- Where's that located?
  • R.- South of Electra, about four miles.
  • K.- On what lease?
  • R.- Waggoner, Waggoner.
  • K.- On the Waggoner lease. You said that had made a good deal of money over a period of time?
  • R.- Yes, it's still producing eight barrels.
  • K.- And it was drilled in what year?
  • R.- 1922.
  • K.- And still producing eight barrels?
  • R.- Still producing eight barrels, so you can see it made, produced a lot of oil.
  • K.- Was it a big well at first?
  • R.- No, it was small, it was a 150 barrel well, this one was. But there was one that made 320 barrels been plugged a long time ago. This one is still producing.
  • B.- When did you start contracting? 1919?
  • R.- 1919.
  • B.- And your drilling was mostly in this area, around Electra and--
  • R.- Burkburnett; I first started when I first contracted in Burkburnett field. Clara field; first, I drilled the first well in Clara, around Clara then. And Burk's boom started and I went in there then.
  • K.- Into the northwestern field or southside?
  • R.- Northwest field.
  • K.- Well, that was sort of a roaring spectacle.
  • R.- Yes, that's right. Lots of people out there and lots of, lots of equipment. Lots of machinery, lots of work.
  • K.- Did you have any special experiences out in that northwest field?
  • R.- I can't recall any. It was just a natural routine business to drill a well and connect it up and put it in the tank.
  • B.- Start another one.
  • R.- Start another one.
  • K.- Well, what about the people out there though?
  • R.- Well, they were all right. I thought they were. A lot of people talk about how it was awful wild. I didn't see anything wild out there. Course I'd been in wild places so much wilder than that was, it didn't seem wild to me.
  • K.- Maybe that's the reason I thought it was pretty wild.
  • R.- Nobody ever held me up. I worked day and night over there all the time and nobody ever held me up anytime, anywhere. And I didn't see anybody else being held up too. Some of them had but I didn't see it, of course. But they were done. As far as that's concerned, they do that right here in Wichita Falls now.
  • B.- Well, they sent a Ranger out there one time, didn't they?
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- Well, they did run wild at night, especially some of those places around.
  • R.- No doubt they did. I didn't make those--
  • K.- Strange town? [inaudible].
  • R.- I didn't make those day or night. I didn't make those anytime day or night. And that's one reason I didn't. I didn't fall in with that element of people, that's all. I was doing my work and went back home, you know.
  • K.- Just wasn't looking around to see what was going on?
  • R.- That's right, I sure didn't. I didn't have any business there so I didn't bother with it.
  • K.- They didn't have any fires to amount to anything in that northwest field did they?
  • R.- No, no.
  • K.- Why?
  • R.- Well, the wells just--
  • K.- They had a lot of gushers.
  • R.- Well, a little farther apart. Well, had a fire once in a while in the northwest field. Quite a few fires in the individual ones, you know.
  • K.- Yes, but not over the field?
  • R.- No. K.- Not spread?
  • R.- No, no, they wasn't connected close enough together so that one well catching the other one, you know.
  • B.- How did you put a well out if it caught on fire?
  • R.- Well, various ways, you know. Used to we had a foamite, we'd pump on to it, you know.
  • B.- Was that in use then?
  • R.- Yes. It was very effective, especially in slush pits and tanks and stuff like that. You could get that in there, why it would put it out, smother it out. If it wouldn't, just let it burn out. That was another way of putting it out, go out itself.
  • B.- Well, if the well itself was on fire, what did you do?
  • R.- Close a valve.
  • K.- That usually was effective?
  • R.- Yes, close the valve. Some way or other get to it and close it, you know, close the valve. Let it leak a little bit where you could put it out with something else.
  • K.- When did they start using nitroglycerin in wells to bring them in?
  • R.- You ought to asked Tom before he died. I don't remember.
  • K.- Yes, we were sorry we didn't get hold of him.
  • R.- Yes.
  • B.- That started pretty early --
  • R.- Yes.
  • B.- .....in the Pennsylvania field.
  • K.- Well, I mean in Texas. Mendethal [?] was the first man to use it here, wasn't he, in this area?
  • R.- I don't know. Far as I know he was.
  • K.- Tom Mendethal.
  • R.- Tom was the first one that used it, as far as I know. Tom was the first one to use it. Tom shot a lot of wells for me, since I got to producing individually.
  • B.- Did you ever know Tex Thornton?
  • R.- No, I didn't personally know him.
  • B.- He was a famous well shooter.
  • R.- Yes, I didn't ever meet him personally.
  • K.- He was just in and out of this area, wasn't he?
  • R.- Huh?
  • K.- Tex Thornton was never here very long.
  • R.- I don't know if he was ever here or not. I don't know of him being here at anytime.
  • B.- He just went on a call, I think.
  • R.- Well, we never had any bad fire out here in a well, any big stuff in here that required to put them out.
  • K.- Had several tank fires....
  • R.- Yes. K.- ....that were pretty bad.
  • R.- I had one well myself I was drilling on a contract, a big gas well, that caught afire. Burned my rig and everything up down there in Stephens County. The boys tried to put it out and they couldn't do it. Had two Haliburton trucks out there and couldn't get around. I was on another job in Jack County. I was down there and had my superintendent on this one, you know. And I saw him driving in one morning about five o'clock down there. And said, "Oh, something wrong." And he told me about it catching fire and burning the rig up and couldn't put it out. He wanted to know
  • if I could just leave a little while and come over and see if maybe figure some way to put it out. I said, "Yes, I'll be glad to go over with you." I went over and got trucks and all of them to pull that stuff out of there. And get it all cleaned out and not try to put that fire out. Clean it all out. And I went into town and sent out another truck to help winch that stuff out of the way because it was extremely hot. First thing we did when I got there, we put a guide over the valve that would knock the...
  • We had an extension pipe on there and it broke, something fell on it and broke it off, you know. So we got it off and got another one on there with a shield. And shut that over the valve and blowed the valve. But the gas it was all burnt out and it was burning all around us then. But it wasn't going high anymore. So, they could work around us there better than they could if it was going so high. It was so hot they couldn't get close to it, you know. But drag all that stuff out. And I went on back down to Jack County. And after you get it all drug out, everything cleaned away from there. The woods was all afire around there, you know. Trees, you know, just hot, they were just burning and blazing. Had to get all that fire out, every bit of it. Just get every bit of it out, get everything away from there so it can't catch fire. And then put those trucks through to blow that fire off of there, just blow it off. I said get your shield up there and just simply blow it off when you get to it.
  • B.- Well, do you set up fans or--
  • R. - No, pumps, water.
  • B. - Oh, Uh-huh.
  • R.- Get high pressure pumps. And these Haliburton trucks out there, you know. And just got them all ready and hitched them all up at one time, you know. And just blowed it off, that's all. I saw him that night. He says, "I got her out." Said, "I got her out, just like you said I would. That put her out just like you said it would." Said, "It was the easiest thing you ever saw when you got ready. It didn't take a minute to put it out, " said.
  • K.- Well, the wells around here, of course, never cratered?
  • R.- No. No, we never had anything like that.
  • K.- And that made it easier to get out, be put out.
  • R.- Yes, it did. When we got to where we could drill deeper wells here, we never got a lot of high pressure gas. We got deeper wells, but we had better casing, steel casing than they formerly had. And it would just stand more, you know, it would take it. You could shut them in. That's lots. Of course, they'd catch afire but you could always fix an extension on them, you know. So you could be away on the outside and still close the valve, you see. When you had one like that, that's the first thing you do. You put an extension on so if anything did happen, well, you could enclose it off, you know, never get near it.
  • K.- They just had a better know-how up in this field and prevented fires.
  • R.- Well, just like I was telling you awhile ago, we never have learned anything about the oil business but we did learn a few little things that helped a little, that's all. We'd be ashamed
  • of ourselves if we'd come back here 50 years from now at what we're doing right now.
  • K.- That's right.
  • R.- Absolutely.
  • K.- How long did you and Mr. Shaw stay in partnership?
  • R.- We... I think about 1922, I believe. I believe in '22 to '28. We divided that stuff up in '28.
  • K.- And you've been on your own since then?
  • R.- On my own since then.
  • K.- As an individual operator.
  • R.- Yes, the Rathke Oil Company. But I own all the stock. I've never been out, I've always owned it all, all paid for.
  • K.- Where are you operating now, I mean what coverage; this area or do you---
  • R.- You mean drilling or producing?
  • K.- Well, both.
  • R.- Well, I've, I've got production all the way from Pampa down to Ranger.
  • K.- Sort of a wide area?
  • R.- Yes. Covered all through there. Right at the present, I'm drilling, the only drilling I'm doing right now is in Young County, north of Southbend.
  • K.- That field hasn't been opened up very long, has it?
  • R.- Oh, yes.
  • K.- So it's one of the older fields?
  • R.- Yes. This is a wildcat I'm drilling, however, though. There's nothing around here. But I got some production there that's a mile southeast of it there. I drilled in '36. First well
  • I drilled in '34 there, but it's not producing. The only producer drilled in '36. About enough of this, isn't it?
  • B.- No. Everywhere I go I hear a story like this; that a location was made and the stake driven to indicate where the well was to be drilled. And then when they tried to move their equipment they bogged down or broke down or something. And located the well wherever the breakdown occurred and got oil. And then when they drilled the original location they didn't get oil.
  • R.- That happened down here in Archer County.
  • B. - Would you tell us about that?
  • R.- I don't know too much about it, to tell about it. But I do know that this fellow that sold them the lease, he made himself a location when they made this location. He made himself a location away from that in his acreage he kept. On what the acreage he let them have, you know, they made the location. And when they came in to drill the well that was the only one they could find. They couldn't find nobody to pilot them in there, they didn't find anything else. So they set up to drill on this well. And when they got about 11 or 12 hundred feet whey they discovered they didn't have it on their land. So they went to this old boy and he traded them this land for some of the other. He just traded out with them and let them have this. And it was a producer. And they later then went on and drilled this other well and it was dry. And that really happened down there.
  • K.- Was that old man Wolfe?
  • R.- Ol man Wolfe, yes. Old D. L.
  • K.- He was a doodle-bug man.
  • R.- Yes, that's right. Yes, that's exactly what happened.
  • B.- Well, now, had he made that location expecting them to drill on it?
  • R.- No.
  • B.- He wasn't trying to fool them?
  • R.- No, no, no, not at all, not at all. He was just as honest as he could be. While he was out there he just made himself one. He thought maybe he had some oil there. He made it there and it did produce.
  • K.- He actually located that with a doodle-bug.
  • R.- That's right. He actually did. And they drilled it through a mistake. May have never been drilled if they hadn't drilled through a mistake. He may have never drilled it, you know. I don't know whether he would or not, but I know that's the way it happened, the way he did get it drilled anyway.
  • K.- Well, he located some more wells, didn't he, with a doodle-bug?
  • R.- I think so. I don't know just what all he had, what all he did do. I never was a doodle-bug man. Couldn't get very close.
  • K.- Well, I understand that he really did--
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- ....locate some of those others. Of course, he got some dry holes too.
  • K.- Yes, he did. I know he got dry holes too.
  • B.- Did you know any other doodle-buggers, besides Wolfe?
  • R.- Oh yes. The house was full of them.
  • B.- Well...
  • R.- What I mean by the house is the oil business.
  • B.- Yes, uh-huh. Well, how do they, how do they operate?
  • R.- Oh, I don't know. They had something or other in their hand that they make it wiggle. And I don't know what's in it at all. Some of them tell me they had crude oil in it, the crude oil came out of the well--
  • K.- Oh, you mean it was built up as a box of some sort?
  • R.- Little old bottle thing they had wrapped up in a tissue you know.
  • B.- So you couldn't---
  • R.- String tied to it like a plum blossom up in the air.
  • B.- Uh-huh.
  • R.- Different things, different ways.
  • K.- I heard of one that had a piece of cheese in it.
  • R.- Probably just as well.
  • K.- That was in the Burk field.
  • R.- I just as soon have cheese in it as anything else. Be just as accurate.
  • B.- I heard also about a man who had an x-ray boy. He came over to Ranger, I think.
  • R.- Yes.
  • B.- And he claimed that he, this boy, could see down under the ground. And he got some work they said. Some people actually paid him money to--
  • R.- Yes, they all got some work. All of them got work.
  • B.- Well, I suppose they're about all out of business now, aren't they
  • R.- No, they're still there.
  • B.- Still there?
  • R.- Just as thick as they ever was.
  • K.- Some are still there at Ranger?
  • R.- Oh, yes. There's still lots of doodle-bugs. They don't get much help from the oil men, however. But there's lots of people that are not in the oil business that's got money and like to get into it, and a sure shot, you know. They think, that is. And some of them get away with it. But the doodle-bug didn't find it. I don't think he did. I don't believe so. I never did think so. Just like going out here and drilling a well, like I'd just go out here and drill a well. If I got a well I was smart. I didn't know it was there till I drilled it.
  • K.- Well, in this part of the country it's a pretty good accident.
  • R.- Yes.
  • K.- What I mean is that you drill and--
  • R.- Yes.
  • B.- You have a good chance.
  • K.- And you have a good chance.
  • B.- Your chances at rambling drilling wouldn't be very high, would they?
  • R.- No.
  • K.- No, but better here in this area than maybe some others.
  • R.- Haven't we just talked about this field being from Electra plumb on down to Ranger, you know, and down through there? It is. And Lord, how many dry places there is between those places! The dry holes you could drill! Why you could drill hundreds of dry
  • holes and not get a bit of oil in one of them, one right after the other. Just running right in that trend too, you can do that.
  • K.- Well, what approximately was your percentage of dry holes?
  • R.- Oh, I don't know, enough of them.
  • K.- You don't have any idea?
  • R.- I've had enough of them.
  • K.- Well, I think you haven't drilled as many holes percentage though as --
  • R.- No. K.- ...a great many others.
  • R.- No, I haven't.
  • K.- That right?
  • R.- I've been pretty good.
  • K.- Been very lucky on that.
  • R.- I don't know. The last three years...
  • K.- Or wise, should we say?
  • R.- Let's see. I drilled one, two, three; I don't think I've drilled but three dry holes the last three years.
  • K.- Good.
  • R.- I don't believe I have.
  • B.- Out of, of many wells?
  • R.- About 27 or 28 wells.
  • B.- That's--- K.- That's a good percentage.
  • B.- Yes, I don't believe anybody would ever do better than that.
  • R.- But the ones that produced, they wasn't too big, though.
  • B.- Well, there's another story I want to ask you about. But I don't believe I've got enough tape on here. Let's....
  • R.- Let's hope it runs out pretty quick.
  • K.- Oh, he has another one.
  • B.- I've got plenty. Got another spool. What I was going to ask you about was the story about somebody stealing a boiler.
  • R.- You're talking about Steal John now, ain't you?
  • B.- Who's John? R.- You know who he is.
  • B.- No, I don't.
  • R.- Well, I ain't going to tell you now.
  • K.- You can tell him without the name.
  • R.- Huh?
  • K.- You can tell him without the name.
  • B.- I don't know whether that ever happened or not. I just....
  • R.- That happened down there at Batson.