SPUDDING & DRILLING RIGS

B5

The Museum’s small Spudder is a 1/6 scale, fully operational 1923 Fort Worth Model Super D and accompanying steam tractor engine manufactured by Roger Lawrence, a professional machinist from Bloomfield, New Mexico. When the model was nearing completion, Lawrence was killed in an accident. Later, his friend Dick Heath offered to purchase and complete the model. Heath had worked on a similar rig in 1950 and had owned a sheet metal shop. The Spudder and its engine had been on display in a museum in Farmington, New Mexico for two years when Heath and his wife, Mona, were visiting family in Montague County. Once they saw the big Wichita Spudder on display at the Museum, they felt their model would fit nicely with our oil and gas exhibits. The Spudder was donated by Dick & Mona Heath of Farmington, New Mexico, and Cindy & Doyle Castle of Saint Jo, Texas.

Mr. Dick Heath demonstrating how the Spudder operates.

Photo by Barbara Green, editor of The Bowie News.

The actual full-size Fort Worth Spudder was built by the Well Machinery & Supply Co. of Fort Worth, which operated into the late 1950s making oil field, mill, threshing and ginning equipment. Their building was located where the current freeway now stands!