Cable Tool Rig

Equipment that replaced the spring pole drilling method used in America's earlier oil fields. The Cable Tool Rig used a bit suspended on a steel drilling cable. The bit is dropped in the hole and the impact breaks up the formation. The broken pieces are removed by a bail. This method made possible the deeper penetration so necessary in the southwest. The Cable Tool Rig was introduced in Texas in 1866. (some use of Cable Tools had been made around 1840 in the north.) Texas gave the southwestern oil industry the first lease, the first oil pipe line, the first wooden and iron storage tanks, the first iron drums for transporting crude oil and first use of the augur principle later employed in rotary rigs. The Cable Tool Rig brought in the first important wells of the permian basin. This Rig was reconstructed from parts of several Rig was reconstructed from parts of several rigs actually used at big lake, Regan county, where the No. 1 Santa Rita blew in during may 1923 as the first well in the first major oil field in the permian basin. To the cable tool rig and the men who used it goes credit for the great development in the permian basin.

Cable Tool Rig is a historical marker in Odessa, Ector County, dedicated in 1964. It is one of 37 historical markers documented in Ector County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 39 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 31.8853, -102.3885 near Odessa. The nearest cataloged historic site is El Paso Natural Gas Company's First Compressor Transmission Engine (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Permian Basin, Odessa College, and Mrs. John L. Morris (Marjorie).

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5135005298. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.