THE MEN WHO WORKED THE RIGS

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Mr. O’Neal went on to become a successful businessman, owning O’Neal’s Radiator Shop in Nocona. He also delved into a number of different ventures, including raising mink, electroplating, and copper and uranium mining. He bought and sold several businesses, built over thirty houses (selling or renting them mostly to oil field workers), and also built two nursing homes. In 1959, he purchased his first oil lease and, along with a few other investors, began to drill a few wildcat wells. The cost of drilling as opposed to the risk of finding any sizable amount of oil convinced him that it was cheaper to buy already producing oil properties. He began acquiring wells from Continental, Sinclair, Magnolia, City Service, Phillips, Sun, Gulf, Humble, Chevron, Texaco and large independents in Montague and Clay Counties in Texas, and Carter, Love and Marshall counties in Oklahoma. At one point he owned and operated 221 oil and gas wells on 11,200 acres of leases in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma.

O’Neal was just one of many local businessmen who made (and sometimes lost) their fortunes in the oil industry.