Formation at Iatan Tex. ...
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Undated image of landscape. A road dissects the image in half. A derrick is seen in the right background. Caption on image reads "Formation at Iatan Tex., Colo-Texas Pet. Co. well in distance. Photo Palace Studio Big Spring, Tex." Caption under image reads "Photo from Dick Hickman early day collection, Colorado City, Texas." PBPM 79-039.044
Inscription (on back): The wooden derrick appearing in the right background, to the right of the old highway and the Texas & Pacific Railway Co. tracks, about half way down from the north edge of the escarpment, was over THE COLORADO-TEXAS PETROLEUM COMPANY'S W. L. Foster No. 1 well located 1317' from the EL and 388' from the NL of Section 43, Blk. 29, T-1-N, T&P Ry. Co., Mitchell County, Texas not far from a siding and small townsite by the name of IATAN on the Texas & Pacific Railway ROW. George A. Reese of Trinidad, Colorado, and the Cook Bros., Horace and Henry, of Loraine, Mitchell County, Texas, undertook to, and eventually did, complete this well as a paying producer of oil between April, 1917 and November, 1920, not actually going on the pump until May 13, 1921. These early Permian Basin Pioneers, did business as [d.b.a] as The Colorado-Texas Petroleum Company, Colorado for Reese and Texas for the Cook Bros. See Jones, The Fabulous Foster No. 1, The Permian Historical Annual, pp. 52-55, reprinted, Lore & Legend, pp. 207-208 (1976).
The Texas & Pacific Railway Co. cut through the western part of this escarpment is, and was, known as and commonly called "RATTLESNAKE CAP." The flat through which the old unpaved highway (80) and RR tracks passed was and is the famous "Iatan Flat" -- the old highway was absolutely impassable after heavy rains. The Permian Red Beds are exposed on the surface here.
October 6, 1979 Lee Jones, Jr.
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The images in this collection are for study purposes, teaching, classroom projection and research only. To use these digital files in any form, an attribution of "Photo courtesy of The Petroleum Museum, Lee Jones, Jr. Collection" must accompany the image.