Thanks for sharing some of your history! My grandfather and his partner operated wells in Oklahoma from 1972 until 2020 then grandpa passed and his partner went downhill and into a nursing home around the same time. Nobody in my family took the time to learn anything about the business other than me, I started helping them every summer at age 12, then pumping pretty much full time at 16…now the business has been left to me and his partner’s daughter to run. I’ll be 31 this year and can’t put into words how honored and blessed I feel being able to continue what they worked so hard for. We’ve only got 18 producers left but I fully intend to keep them going for another 30 years and pass them on to the next generation!
@@TheZachLife Thanks buddy, I’ve always thought about starting a YT channel similar to yours but I’m a little camera shy and don’t think I could explain it all as eloquently as you do haha. It’s great info and motivation for us younger guys in the patch, Keep it up man! 👍🏻
@@pinkelephants1421 I’m fully aware of what’s going on in the world and you’d be a nut to think I don’t have investments in a few green companies/technologies as well. I may have to reassess my statement in 15-20 years but for the time being global peak oil demand isn’t forecasted to occur until 2040 so I’m not too concerned. Also, passenger vehicles only account for 26% of oil usage world wide so it really doesn’t matter if everyone starts driving EVs overnight, it’s not going to hurt business much. Transportation as a whole consumes 68% of oil produced, so perhaps once the tech is here to electrify planes, trains and ships we will worry.. but even that leaves 28million barrels per day of consumption on the table that’s used for chemicals, plastics and other products that can only be sourced from crude. I just don’t see it disappearing in my lifetime… Production in the US may eventually be banned but it will still be produced somewhere and you will still be buying products made from it.
Just your average joe passing through from the RUclips algorithm. Really appreciate you sharing this since I know nothing about oil production or oil production equipment. That little bit of water and oil it produces is helpful because it supplies us with oil that can be used for cooking food, boiling water to make clean water, and heating our homes. Every little bit counts! Thanks for keeping it running, its a neat piece of history.
Hi I'm a cnc machinist, I work on Wire and sinker edm's, my company has a major focus in precision micro manufacturing and metrology , and have been waiting for your in-depth on edm. anyways I wouldn't mind a video on oil pumps and Drills.
I'm about 10 years older than that well! I gotta tell ya these videos are treasures to many of us. Having retired from the oil/gas/power gen field in 2015, I miss some of the sights and sounds of the oil patch. These videos are very nostalgic for me! Thanks, Zach!
It’s nice to hear you say that. I’ve worked in the oilfield most of my life. I was laid off in 2020 during the COVID slow down. Now I work in Biogas, and I sure miss the oilfield. It gets in you, it’s hard to explain to people.
I worked the oil fields in Wyoming and Colorado in the 1970’s. It used to amaze me how much difference there was in the oil from the wells. I lived and worked in Powder Wash Colorado. The oil from the wells in that field would any where from a light tan to green or black in color. Those wells often would be within sight of other wells and producing oil of a different color and viscosity.
There was a guy on TV who showed the oil that came out of his well in Louisiana. The “crude” that came out of the ground was a beautiful golden color and looked like refined motor oil.
Holy smokes, I had an epiphany. Now I know where all these tie rods and bolts came from laying all over the farm in the back slough. Now it's all starting to make sense. And my grandpa is the sort to not throw anyhting away, but we never understood what this stuff was. He had old rail ties and stuff like that laying around also, so we thought maybe it was some railroad stuff but now this makes sense. Of course it's all the modern grasshoppers out there pumping away since I could remember. Thanks for this video. Love the simplicity and soothing ryhtym of this old pump jack. Cheers from western Canada.
@@chadachwilliam5515I had bought and sold a 1935 IH c-1 pickup truck. The steel in that truck was unlike any I've ever seen. It could sit in the wet ground since the 1950s and not disappear like modern steel would in less than 5 years and wasn't seized or welded like modern stuff would also be
@@tomfromoz makes perfect sense. Kinda like how they get an engine perfected they redesign it so it's gonna fail no matter what unless you tear it down and replace gaskets ,ect at a regular interval or replace the gaskets with stronger ones that will not fail made from rubber and steel instead of plastic and silicone. It's obvious to me that is a form of job security
@@chadachwilliam5515 Yeah, steel back then was tough stuff. A buddies daughter bought a house built in the 1930's that still has knob and tube wiring. I replaced the wiring in the garage and pulled out the knobs that held the wire. The knobs are 2 piece porcelain with a nail that hold the 2 porcelain pieces together. The wire goes between the 2 porcelain pieces and the nail driven into the wood, holding the wire. The nail is maybe the size of a 20d nail and I could barely cut one in half with both hands and hardened dykes. Todays nails don't even come close to being that tough.
I’m from the Texas panhandle and I’ve worked most of my adult life in the oil field. I hope we can keep this oil patch history alive. I had an old man try to explain this to me one day at the sight of a very old multi bore water flood. Some of this equipment was left behind but not enough to make sense. It dawned on me that this is what he was trying to explain.
Pumping that oil out looks clean enough. And the oils gets refined and used locally. While lithium mining is filthy and poisonous. Then the ore gets shipped halfway around the world in huge ships that burns $100,000 worth of fuel a day and dump their shit in the oceans. Then the refined ore gets shipped halfway around the world to be made into batteries, and then the batteries get shipped halfway around the world to the consumers. The worst is then the poisonous dangerous spend batteries.
@@MrTangent Maybe you misunderstood me. I said pumping THAT oil out. You must admit it sure looks clean. I wonder how many other such clean oil wells their are in the world. I have never seen fracking done. Some say it is good, some say it is bad. Regarding the disruption in global climates, you must realizes that even the worst of us humankind pales to the power of nature. With the previous ten global warming cycles, there were no humans to blame. If the sun goes on one of it's four, 17 or 51 year cycles, then there is nothing you or me can do about it. Maybe the sun has even more long time cycles that we do not understand yet. Oil used to be plants, and plants depend on carbon to life. What is the ratio of man made carbon pollution to volcanic based carbon pollution? Yes, people are stupid, and pollution is wrong. But my point is that oil is not the devil, and others are angels.
@@Deontjie So there much good scientific information out there, and videos breaking it down for people, that will explain the heating and cooling cycle of the earth. Knowing the cold cycle to come in the next few hundred, maybe another couple thousand years, I would hate to rely on batteries for my heat ;)
Of course these wells should be kept in service! Even if they’re not big producers-it’s what they represent, their importance and I think it’s very fascinating to see. Thanks for your videos.
This was wonderful. Thank you so much. Talk about nostalgia. Every summer in the late 50's and early sixties, my family would go through the oil fields in Texas and Oklahoma, in our '56 Ford Country Squire station wagon, on Route 66. The fields would go for acres and acres, and I used to love to watch them and hear them. They almost seemed alive. I didn't realize there were any still left! It'd break my heart to see them disappear. It's like an old, faithful friend, never quitting, never giving up. I probably sound like a crazy old lady, but this just made my day. Thank you so much! ❤️🇺🇸
My dad was from Shamrock Tx. My grand dad a small country store outside of town in the 50's. I remember drinking my first Dr. Pepper from that store. :)
Back in the late 90’s we were collecting plants on a ranch up near Canadian,TX and we visited a lease still using rod lines on their wells. One setup I’ll always remember had a central powerhouse with a big Fairbanks-Morse engine running a big horizontal wheel/disc cam. There were about 5 or 6 rod lines running out like spokes on a wagon wheel. Each line was hooked up to multiple pump jacks. It was an early engineering marvel I’ll never forget.
Heck ya! Those Wells are still good wells. It basically cost pennies a day to run. I'm from West Texas and a 4 barrel a day was a keeper. Two thumbs up.
After I graduated high school in 1978, I worked in oilfield machine shops in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Utah until the oil boom bust in the early 1980s. Working in the oil industry never leaves your soul, I miss being around the petroleum business.
I was a machinist during the oil boom and left that career path right before the oil bust in the 80’s. I use to make all kinds of oil tools including under reamers, whipstock packers, cementing tools, and junk mills. We made everything with manual machines until we finally purchased a CNC mill. I use to run an old Lodge and Shipley lathe with a taper attachment. The lathe came from a WW2 warship and still had a Navy tag on it. It was a great lathe and could really hog the steel.
My Grandfather was in charge of the "power " and drag lines to a field of wells somewhere North of Tulsa, Oklahoma back in the 1930 and '40s. I remember duscussions about how he and a team of horses would maintain that location. I wish I had paid more attention to all that history. I'm 78 years old and all I remember was Grandpa after he had retired from that oilfield job. There is only one relative still alive that might fill me in on some of that history and I have to make it a special prodject to get that recorded some way. Thanks for showing us that special part of our history. Salute !!!
Just write down all the information you can get and any pictures and offer it to your local library, they will usually happily put that information somewhere for future generations that are interested We recently found a bunch of photos of my mother from when she was a kid because someone took pictures and wrote a little about what went on that year In our small town and just handed it to the local library
The breakdown of the math is great! It’s absolutely viable for these old wells to run their butt off for as long as they can. It’s great people like you and your buddies have interest and keep them running, with more and more oil projects getting shut down. That one well can support 30 people is an awesome fact.
@@Cragified Kinda like what I tell my kids when picking a fast food restaurant: pick the oldest one you can find. They've paid off all their loans so they can afford to use the best ingredients and hire the best workers.
You did a great job breaking down why these older and smaller wells are important! Similar to smaller farmers are important! You put forth a lot of good logic showing why many don't exhibit common sense in some areas! One thing you didn't mention is that the money spent on the oil from your wells goes to someone who actually cares about America and that money goes into the American economy!! ... And not some foreign oil dealer who either hates America or could care less about America! Thank you for showing us this well and equipment! I hope it is in your family for 4 more generations!!
"Oklahoma jacks" were all over the Pennsylvania oilfields when I was young. I remember the "eccentric" powers that ran them, with rod lines coming out of the powerhouses like spokes on a bicycle wheel. Thanks for the memories.
I ran some numbers, & came up with guesstimate amount that rod going up & down in a year has traveled 5973 miles. Interesting video. See old stuff work is pretty neat.
Great video on the old rod line pumper! In 1950 was First Grader living south of Corsicana and went to sleep many nights to the sound of an old Hit and Miss pulling some rod line pumpers. The few minutes on the end of the video sure was neat to hear those old sounds! Thanks for the memory.
Love hearing about your family's 4th generation operations. Great piece of history, thanks for posting. They still have a number of these rod lines running in West Virginia and Pennsylvania (maybe Kentucky too) but with some unique differences from what I've seen - everybody seems to have a different twist up there. The doll heads I saw were actually v-notched saplings or posts hammered into the ground, greased like you say. Many wells like this are operated using central pump houses incorporating a bull wheel and eccentric gear, with a number converted from steam to propane/gas, and some even electrified. I remember listening to those sounds too - classic!
Wow. My Grandpa's wells in Pleasants County WV were almost exactly like that. The only difference was that instead of rods, he used wire lines running to all of his wells. He had an "engine house" where he had an air-cooled Wisconsin engine that ran on natural gas. It spun a really big "eccentric" that had rods connected to it, and Grandpa then had wire lines that connected to the rods going out to the wells. He pumped at least 4 or 5 wells with that one engine. I know all about under pull and over pull jacks. Going up and down the hillside, he had to have 'hold-ups" and "hold-downs" for the wire lines so that the pump jacks were actually pulled by the engine, rather than the lines just shooting up and down in the air (like if a hold-down failed). When that happened, the pulling force was not transferred to the pump jacks. I helped him splice many wire lines that broke or to repair a hold-down that came loose at the bottom, etc. Trees falling on the wire lines was another problem. It was hard work for a teen age boy. LOL
I myself being from Pleasants Co. WV and I just happened to click on this channel about these jack lines pumping these wells. I remember going to a neighbors old homeplace out from New Matamoras, Ohio somewhere close to the Little Muskingum River, and seeing these iron lines running along the ground ....still pumping. I was just a kid. Now 79 years old myself. Remember it very vivid ally to this day. My Grandpa was Bernard Riggs and he as a young man worked on the oil fields out around Horseneck, Pleasants Co. I'm just curious as to who you are ....and perhaps my name is familiar to you.?? My name is Jack Riggs, and I grew up in St.Marys and lived just across the hiway from Quaker State refinery.
@@jackriggs1108 Your name sounds familiar, but probably from family connections. My Grandfather's name was Benton Green, and he lived for a time in St. Marys. He was born out at Henry Camp, and that was where his lease was. My name is Thomas Delany and I live in Tennessee now.
@@jackriggs1108 My Great Aunts, Fonda and Grace Locke lived in a house on 2nd Street in St. Mary's, and I recall fondly sitting on their front porch as a kid, watching trains go down the street in front of their house.
Enjoyed that a lot. I grew up on the prairie in Osage County Oklahoma and my dad was a pumper. On a small hill just above our house was a Power House, as they were called at the time. It was large, about 50' x 30' and made of tin. Some posters below have mentioned these. This one ran on propane or gas, with a large 1-cylinder motor driving a belt that turned that big heavy flywheel laid sideways in a shallow depression of the concrete floor. A large diameter exhaust pipe came out at about a 45-degree angle, probably 10" diameter, 6' long with a baloney-slice end. Any trucker would have been proud to hear it. About a dozen rod lines ran off the eccentric of that flywheel all across the landscape. Where it went under the gravel well roads there was a steel 10" casing pipe, and in the fall and winter we'd shove rabbits out to eat. Besides doll heads, our rod lines at intervals had a bipod swing, as it was called. Two vertical pipes about three feet apart and 5' tall or so. Between at the top was a cross pipe that could swing and got greased. From the center of this hung a smaller diameter pipe with a clamp to the rod. This allowed the rod to swing, but also got it elevated for changes uphill or downhill. We got so used to the faint but steady crashing of the jacks, as well as the engines on the wells that we almost needed them to fall asleep. We all knew when working cattle to beware the rod lines. Many a pumper had a fence around his company doghouse made of the rods. When the houses were taken out of service around there in the early 60's we bought one from Texaco, took it down and made a small barn for our horses.
There were still two operating power houses like you describe south of Calpet, Wyoming in the early 70s. Texaco still had a camp that I think was built in the 1940s. Texaco bought the lease those old pumpjacks were on and replaced them with electric motors. Belco Petroleum had a lot of pumpjacks in the area that had natural gas motors on them. Fortunately the wind drowned out the noise of all those engines so that we could sleep at night.
When I was in high school up in Borger , TX I would ride around the oilfield roads during the summer (before I started working at a paving company). I found a big wheel (bull wheel) laid out horizontally on the ground. I can't say for sure but if memory serves me right the wheel was at least 10' in diameter. Sucker rods were connected to the eccentrics on the wheel (I think) and they went out to pump jacks, or what was left of them. I was told that a steam engine drove the wheel with a belt but I never saw that. My dad built gas plants for a living, I followed in his shoes and I have spent my life working in oil and gas. I have worked for a large privately owned oil and gas company for about 12 or 13 years. We have production, crude oil pipelines and pumps stations, gas pipelines, gas gathering, and gas processing plants in numerous states including Alaska. It's good to see someone putting a positive light on our industry. Hydrogen and carbon... that's all it is...
Thank you for sharing this video. I love the oilfield. I represented the fifth generation of The Bovaird Supply Company. We were incorporated in 1871 and sold/manufactured equipment for over 120 years. I love the older pieces.
Just started watching your channel always was fascinated with oil wells I grew up in Southern California near the beach where oil wells are everywhere. There was even some areas where oil seeps up through the ground makes a small pool of oil right on the ground you can hike to. I bet most people in the US have no idea just how much oil production goes on in Southern California oil wells are everywhere even right in the middle of the cites. Wouldn't know it now days unless you look at google earth they put walls around them. Don't listen to the negative comments I think it's really cool that you preserved the historic wells it's a part of American history where would America be without oil??
I restore 100 year old Cast Iron FDNY Fire Alarms. The metal is just as good today as it was in 1921. There is very little deep penetration. Almost ALL of it is Surface Rust. Our Grandparents were way smarter than we will ever hope to be. They were craftsman back then. 63 year old oil well still working. Amazing.
Brings back memories. Back in the 80's I worked for a drilling contractor out of Nowata OK. When we weren't drilling wells in Osage County we were washing down and plugging wells like this in the Tulsa area. The rod lines ran everywhere and were powered by a big steel wheel in a huge wheel house. Fun to warch, thanks!
The steel wheel in a wheel house sounds like what I came across just outside of Sperry. I have pics I wish I could show you to see if it is what you're talking about.
Thank You ! I can remember the clank of the rod lines and the exhaust of the power unit chugging away so slowly in the summer nights, it's a sound and memory that I don't think I can forget growing up in Oklahoma. I miss it, very fond memories for me...
March 2023 and I just stumbled across this. A piece of history that needs looking after indeed. Thanks so much for sharing, it looked so beautiful out there.
Very cool. About 15 years ago, I was running a small esp on an old lease way off the beaten path in SE Kansas. I took a different route out of there, and ran across an old power house with about 5 of these running off of it. I had to stop and let it all soak in. Another tech I worked with was a big hunter, and was out chasing raccoons one night. He about freaked out when he felt something start moving under his feet. He had stumbled upon another old power house lease NE of Tulsa a little ways, and was on the old shackle rod buried under the grass. I also remember stumbling across the old draw works(really not sure what it’s called, but the unit that the shackle rods hooked to) of a power house mostly buried in the dirt south of Kilgore many years ago. I love the history of the patch. So much to see and learn out there, and surprisingly, still more of this old stuff running in places than people realize.
The rods were linked to an eccentric wheel which took power from the central power house. This turned the circular motion into a straight-line motion for the rods.
I love watching your videos, I retired after 37 years working for a large independent oil company that had huge safety and environmental department's that made operations difficult, they would have a heart attack if the walked through your lease,
I can't tell you how much I appreciate this video. I know nothing about oil wells but I do love machinery. Thank You for this. I will be researching old oil wells now until I'm satisfied. I think people need to learn something new every day and you supplied a new topic for me.
My grandfather was a pumper in Washington County ok. I can remember going with him to the lease. I can remember the rod house and old pump Jack's. Everything you have shown sure does bring back alot of memories. Thanks.
Those things remind me of our travels around the States when I was between 10 and 13 years old. Now I'm 61, and I still have memories of huge areas just covered in those things. Super neat.
I grew up outside of oil city pa. At that time there were a lot of them around. There was one about a mile from the house and on certain nights you could hear it run. It was powered by a hit and miss engine that i believe ran on casing head gas or so iwas told. We also could hear the cars racing at tri city speedway near Franklin on Sat night. Oh also whip o wills, used to keep my dad awake.
I am the same age as this well, I was in the exploration, started as a roughneck and worked my way to a driller from 1979 - 1987. Sourlake TX is where I ran into same theory but using sucker rod layer on the 3" by 3" 10 ''or 20 ft boards all connected end to end across the ground from a wheel house to the pump jacks. A huge locomotive looking cast iron wheel with a Diesel engine or maybe a steam engine in the early days mover sucker rod across the oiled wood runs for miles to 25 too 50 wells. The crazy think was the holding tanks were made of wood like a keg or large barrel to hold the oil pumped out of the ground. Pipelines ran very where along the ground from the wells the the wooded holding tanks ... Thank you for you channel and explaining what really goes on in the old days
Always wondered why pumping rigs were called jacks, but it makes perfect sense when you finally see a real pump jack. It is exactly that, a pump actuated by a jack.
Memories. Yeah, I'm very familiar with the old grasshopper dragline jacks. Daddy bought an old rundown farm in Barren County Kentucky in 1952. It sat on a "yellowcap" 470' pool. There were 6 minimally producing wells pumped by the drag lines on doll head posts. I followed my granddad on his daily rounds pumping the wells. Power came from a reciprocating turnhead driven by a old one lung engine. Pa would start the thing, put the turnhead in gear and walk every inch of the lease. By noon we'd be back to shut it down and eat lunch. 3 or 4 of the wells were pulled, spuded, bailed clean, new cups installed and put on electric motors with different jacks. Years later the wells were shutdown, pulled and plugged. Most of the dollhead posts were gathered but several times I'd find one while cutting haw with a sickle bar mower😠. Thanks for sharing.
We still have rod lines on the striper wells in Montana. Been all over the world as a specialty petroleum engineer but went to school in Montana back in the '70s started oilfield work in the summers while in high school on worker overs and drilling rigs before going to school; I spent time in the west and east and south Texas offshore also. Your videos being back both fond and a few nightmare memories
Im in Oklahoma myself. Have recently found your channel. Love the old wells. My grandfather owned some land many many years ago that had a few wells on it. One was steam powered everything was still there but hadnt been in use for some time.
thanks for the introduction to something some of us from the midwest (michigan) never get to see or experience! i mean we have wells in michgan but nothing from the era that pushed/led this country in the modern world. that history and a familiy tie is awseome!
thank you for sharing the information about these wells and also thank you for having the wisdom to know that we would enjoy just experiencing the sounds of the well pump.
When I was living in Odessa TX in the 80s, I had a old guy show me a piece of machinery, it had a pully on one end and 90* a fitting on the other when you spun the pully it caused the fitting to move back and forth, he said it was to operate wells like you are showing today. When I was roustebouting in the 70s I remember seeing those pieces of pipe sticking up out of the grass in places and wondering what they were for
A LONG TIME AGO, I knew a kid in California that I used to hang out with and ride bikes together. On his 18th birthday he was given an oil well. A more modern version. And I never saw him again. I did spot him in a bar with two absolutely GORGEOUS women. But he was rich by then. Lucky dude. Just one oil well made him super rich. I hope he's doing okay now a days.
Great video. My ex-wife's grand-dad had pumped a 'jack-line' in Pennsylvania. He said his was circular with central power and lines radiating out like spokes to the jacks. He told me (I was the only family member who worked in the oilfields and wanted to listen) of a relief pumper in winter who'd gotten his coat caught up in the line and was killed. He warned me to never wear loose clothing around pumping units (we have pumping units in CA) and it's stayed with me 50+ years. Lou was a tough old roughneck who worked fields across the nation and I miss him...Men of iron and derricks of wood.
The cool part about setups like you describe is that each of the units balances the others. So one 8 or 10 HP motor can pump 6 or 10 wells as they are all in balance.
Thanks for sharing this video. I saw an operating rod line system in eastern Kansas. It had the powerhouse with the large wheel and thick belt. I made a living in the Oil Patch. When I watch your videos it makes me smile.
You have been trained well by your grandfather and father. You are one of a very few people that can get the job done. I retired a few years ago from oil well supply store in North Central Texas because of the young ones that came to work and says that’s not my job. Maybe you could charge people for a ride along. Love your channel.
Man that's cool Zach! Please keep that old jack running as long as you can, it's so important, and just really cool to keep some history alive! Not just on display, but still alive and earning it's keep. I think it's really neat that you have 4 generations of family history too, don't see that much anymore. I enjoyed listening to racket of that old pump jack at the end of the video, little bit of time travel was fun 👍
It's good to hear that you think of family.. to take what you learned in the old ways and keep it alive today.. always a good value. Wish to get a chance spend some time out in the fields and just listen to then story's you have.. even if it only a day.
As a kid in Texas, I'm still here by choice, my dad would describe what sounds I was hearing as pump units running on hit and miss engines, and explain what was going on. Needing to know more, he'd walk me out to see for myself. Looking at 'Oil Patch' cartoons, I could imagine working the oil wells in the west Texas, a dream that has yet to hit reality. I drive through Saratoga and Batsun when going to his place now, and see them and reminisce. Thanks
My father' Dad Ernest worked the oil lines up until about 1939. He did maintenance and greased the "doll heads." Hard life in tar paper shack and far from everything had three kids then. Many stories and most sad. I saw these as a child when we would drive the oil fields in the 50's in his Model A. I lived in Turley and Tulsa and Sand Springs. I am 77.
Love it! Thanks I live in Ok and ride the back roads I see them all the time and I know that the men who worked them deserve allot of respect for there contribution to the the past GOD bless them!
My grandfather who I was named for lost some fingers in a rod line somewhere here in N. Texas. I don't know when he was injured but he was working on a drilling rig in Electra when my mother was born in 1919. He later was a pumper and a roustabout so I am guessing it was when he was a pumper. He died around 1950 before I was born in 1952. My father never worked in the oilfield but I spent 8 years roughnecking and drilling so I somewhat returned to my roots.
Zach I can't tell you how much I enjoy your channel. Everytime traveling through Oklahoma and Texas I would see the wells and wonder about them. You do a wonderful job explaining and have a great personality. Keep it up!!
I LIVE IN PONCA CITY, OKLAHOMA... THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE HISTORY ALIVE... WE ALL CAN LEARN AND ENJOY THE RAW MECHANICS OF THIS UNIT AND GET A SMILE.
Reminds me of when some of the wells in Clay County Illinois had hit and miss engines running a pump. Those hit and miss engines are incredible and unique in their own perspectives!
That was very cool. I remember visiting the Phillips museum in Bartlesville Oklahoma a decade ago, and they have huge diorama of Phillips earliest old field. It's a functioning model with a cable (rod line?) snaking from the boiler through the entire oil patch providing power to the various pieces of equipment. Nice seeing an actual working example, perhaps the last living example of that era. 👍 (might consider a video of that 🙂)
My dad had a bulk oil dealership when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time with him delivering gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil. We had above ground bulk tanks and I remember putting the pipe into the compartment hatch, opening the valve and watching the liquid run into a compartment and closing the valve when the liquid hit the right ring. I always wondered, "where did all of this stuff really come from"? The one line diagrams in the books leave the how it really works part out. Thank you for the continuing education, very informative and very cool!
My dad was born at Qualls and grew up in Cherokee County. He considered Tahlequah his home town. He talked many times about a gas well that a drilling company left blowing to the wind somewhere in that area in the 1940’s I believe. He said they would use the roar from the open gas pipe as a locator when coon hunting at night. He passed away at age 87 in 2017.
These were all over Tullos, Louisiana when I was growing-up in the 1950's. The oil deposit was a single dome, so all of the wells were "stripper wells" with various types of pumps used. There was quite a cacophony of sounds during the nights. There was one pump-type driven by a small gasoline engine that went "pop-pop-pop" thru the night until it wan out of fuel. THe sound lulled me to sleep and when the fuel ran out, the sound stopped and I woke-up.
we had a gas pump on our land near the Ok/Kansas border near Edna It was just like this one this just brought back lots of memories we recently sold the land but being out there with my grandfather and dad was always fun
Hey Zach. Nice to know I'm not the only one hung up on his grandpas all oilfield stuff. I remember walking to the power house to knock off an under pull with my dad so they could pull it when I was a kid.
What a wonderful old piece of engineering that's just been getting on with doing it's job since 1959! And it has a wooden bearing that's never been changed; amazing! Thank you for preserving this old girl and sharing such a piece of history. I particularly enjoyed the last couple of minutes of the video; watching the gentle, unhurried motion of the pump, listening to the hypnotic sound it makes and appreciating the stark beauty of the landscape which has been it's home for the past 63 years.
I love this. thank you. I miss working the oil patch in the DJ basin. too many ups and downs that it was hard to budget for a family. it was simple yet hard work. Some of the wells we maintained in the Pawnee Grasslands and also around Walden, Colorado on the western slope were drilled over a century ago. I know the Pawnees have been modernized due to fracking but the wells around Walden are still the same, producing maybe a barrel a day and some doing 10 to 20.
I'm a former petroleum engineer and have never seen a pump jack like this one. Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.
@@coloradostrong 🙄🤦♂️ Stupid comment.
You're too young, that's why, lol. To us oldies, it's a part of us.
@@coloradostrong Why so cynical?
@@srvntlilly Are they wrong though?
@@wowplayer160 Are they wrong in what way? 🤔
Thanks for sharing some of your history! My grandfather and his partner operated wells in Oklahoma from 1972 until 2020 then grandpa passed and his partner went downhill and into a nursing home around the same time. Nobody in my family took the time to learn anything about the business other than me, I started helping them every summer at age 12, then pumping pretty much full time at 16…now the business has been left to me and his partner’s daughter to run. I’ll be 31 this year and can’t put into words how honored and blessed I feel being able to continue what they worked so hard for. We’ve only got 18 producers left but I fully intend to keep them going for another 30 years and pass them on to the next generation!
Thats awesome. Good luck.
@@TheZachLife Thanks buddy, I’ve always thought about starting a YT channel similar to yours but I’m a little camera shy and don’t think I could explain it all as eloquently as you do haha. It’s great info and motivation for us younger guys in the patch, Keep it up man! 👍🏻
Trey, did you marry the partners daughter? Be a dang good story if you did.
@@austin3626Lol nope she’s 10-11yrs years older than me. She was locked down by the time I got fuzz on my peaches 😂
@@pinkelephants1421 I’m fully aware of what’s going on in the world and you’d be a nut to think I don’t have investments in a few green companies/technologies as well. I may have to reassess my statement in 15-20 years but for the time being global peak oil demand isn’t forecasted to occur until 2040 so I’m not too concerned. Also, passenger vehicles only account for 26% of oil usage world wide so it really doesn’t matter if everyone starts driving EVs overnight, it’s not going to hurt business much. Transportation as a whole consumes 68% of oil produced, so perhaps once the tech is here to electrify planes, trains and ships we will worry.. but even that leaves 28million barrels per day of consumption on the table that’s used for chemicals, plastics and other products that can only be sourced from crude. I just don’t see it disappearing in my lifetime… Production in the US may eventually be banned but it will still be produced somewhere and you will still be buying products made from it.
Just your average joe passing through from the RUclips algorithm. Really appreciate you sharing this since I know nothing about oil production or oil production equipment. That little bit of water and oil it produces is helpful because it supplies us with oil that can be used for cooking food, boiling water to make clean water, and heating our homes. Every little bit counts! Thanks for keeping it running, its a neat piece of history.
Exactly. Thanks.
@@TheZachLife 02:36 Amazing shot of the sky, just beautiful.
Definitely not cooking oil...
🤦♂ Guys, he didnt mean that it's cooking oil. He meant the refined products can run your stove.
@@-108- You're just being deliberately obtuse, arent you? I'm not gonna waste any more time on you.
Neat video, thanks for making it. Simple pump. I wonder how they optimized the lever arms etc.
Hi I'm a cnc machinist, I work on Wire and sinker edm's, my company has a major focus in precision micro manufacturing and metrology , and have been waiting for your in-depth on edm. anyways I wouldn't mind a video on oil pumps and Drills.
Nice to see Destin getting the same recommendations as I am, keep learning man!
You should come do a video in Oklahoma about oil, lots of hidden engineering and science, seems like it's right up your alley.
Hey Destin! Awesome to "see" you on this side of RUclips - just goes to show you love learning as much as all of us who watch your channel haha
andddd of course youre here :(
I'm about 10 years older than that well! I gotta tell ya these videos are treasures to many of us. Having retired from the oil/gas/power gen field in 2015, I miss some of the sights and sounds of the oil patch. These videos are very nostalgic for me! Thanks, Zach!
12 years older here!
I thought you were Jack Benny ;. 39 - 39 !
I agree love the old history of America, fascinating
It’s nice to hear you say that. I’ve worked in the oilfield most of my life. I was laid off in 2020 during the COVID slow down. Now I work in Biogas, and I sure miss the oilfield. It gets in you, it’s hard to explain to people.
I worked the oil fields in Wyoming and Colorado in the 1970’s. It used to amaze me how much difference there was in the oil from the wells. I lived and worked in Powder Wash Colorado. The oil from the wells in that field would any where from a light tan to green or black in color. Those wells often would be within sight of other wells and producing oil of a different color and viscosity.
There was a guy on TV who showed the oil that came out of his well in Louisiana. The “crude” that came out of the ground was a beautiful golden color and looked like refined motor oil.
Which color is the best?
@@seeharvester light golden brown. It has the fewest impurities. You an also google your question to get more information.
@Hodwooker I was just in Powder Wash last week!
I've read that crude oil can be like honey color sometimes.
Holy smokes, I had an epiphany. Now I know where all these tie rods and bolts came from laying all over the farm in the back slough. Now it's all starting to make sense. And my grandpa is the sort to not throw anyhting away, but we never understood what this stuff was. He had old rail ties and stuff like that laying around also, so we thought maybe it was some railroad stuff but now this makes sense. Of course it's all the modern grasshoppers out there pumping away since I could remember. Thanks for this video. Love the simplicity and soothing ryhtym of this old pump jack. Cheers from western Canada.
At least it’s high quality steel. One day it can be reforged, that’s why old timers don’t toss away metal.
@@chadachwilliam5515I had bought and sold a 1935 IH c-1 pickup truck. The steel in that truck was unlike any I've ever seen. It could sit in the wet ground since the 1950s and not disappear like modern steel would in less than 5 years and wasn't seized or welded like modern stuff would also be
@@tomfromoz Both and yep pieces of rail are used as anvils around the shop and weights to hold things down.
@@tomfromoz makes perfect sense. Kinda like how they get an engine perfected they redesign it so it's gonna fail no matter what unless you tear it down and replace gaskets ,ect at a regular interval or replace the gaskets with stronger ones that will not fail made from rubber and steel instead of plastic and silicone. It's obvious to me that is a form of job security
@@chadachwilliam5515 Yeah, steel back then was tough stuff. A buddies daughter bought a house built in the 1930's that still has knob and tube wiring. I replaced the wiring in the garage and pulled out the knobs that held the wire. The knobs are 2 piece porcelain with a nail that hold the 2 porcelain pieces together. The wire goes between the 2 porcelain pieces and the nail driven into the wood, holding the wire. The nail is maybe the size of a 20d nail and I could barely cut one in half with both hands and hardened dykes. Todays nails don't even come close to being that tough.
I’m from the Texas panhandle and I’ve worked most of my adult life in the oil field. I hope we can keep this oil patch history alive. I had an old man try to explain this to me one day at the sight of a very old multi bore water flood. Some of this equipment was left behind but not enough to make sense. It dawned on me that this is what he was trying to explain.
Cool I'm from the Texas panhandle too..just clicked on this video..interesting.
I'm 59 years old and lived in Oklahoma my entire life and never heard of these... Thanks for the great video!!!
They used to be all over the Perry / Enid area
Pumping that oil out looks clean enough. And the oils gets refined and used locally. While lithium mining is filthy and poisonous. Then the ore gets shipped halfway around the world in huge ships that burns $100,000 worth of fuel a day and dump their shit in the oceans. Then the refined ore gets shipped halfway around the world to be made into batteries, and then the batteries get shipped halfway around the world to the consumers. The worst is then the poisonous dangerous spend batteries.
@@MrTangent Maybe you misunderstood me. I said pumping THAT oil out. You must admit it sure looks clean. I wonder how many other such clean oil wells their are in the world. I have never seen fracking done. Some say it is good, some say it is bad. Regarding the disruption in global climates, you must realizes that even the worst of us humankind pales to the power of nature. With the previous ten global warming cycles, there were no humans to blame. If the sun goes on one of it's four, 17 or 51 year cycles, then there is nothing you or me can do about it. Maybe the sun has even more long time cycles that we do not understand yet. Oil used to be plants, and plants depend on carbon to life. What is the ratio of man made carbon pollution to volcanic based carbon pollution? Yes, people are stupid, and pollution is wrong. But my point is that oil is not the devil, and others are angels.
@@MrTangent keep the climate bullshit going kid.
@@Deontjie So there much good scientific information out there, and videos breaking it down for people, that will explain the heating and cooling cycle of the earth. Knowing the cold cycle to come in the next few hundred, maybe another couple thousand years, I would hate to rely on batteries for my heat ;)
Of course these wells should be kept in service! Even if they’re not big producers-it’s what they represent, their importance and I think it’s very fascinating to see. Thanks for your videos.
1.7 barrel/day × $100/barrel = ca-ching
@@LagrangePoint0 unfortunately half the country wants to be communist
@@LagrangePoint0 lmao ok white guy
@BloatedJam So you're denying that Venezuela has a centrally planned economy?
They'll be kept in service exactly as long as its worth while. Sentimental value isn't worth keeping it going just because.
This was wonderful. Thank you so much. Talk about nostalgia. Every summer in the late 50's and early sixties, my family would go through the oil fields in Texas and Oklahoma, in our '56 Ford Country Squire station wagon, on Route 66. The fields would go for acres and acres, and I used to love to watch them and hear them. They almost seemed alive. I didn't realize there were any still left! It'd break my heart to see them disappear. It's like an old, faithful friend, never quitting, never giving up. I probably sound like a crazy old lady, but this just made my day. Thank you so much! ❤️🇺🇸
My dad was from Shamrock Tx. My grand dad a small country store outside of town in the 50's. I remember drinking my first Dr. Pepper from that store. :)
grew up with one of these in our neighbors pasture, theyre everywhere around.
good friend i grew up with lost a finger to one on a dare
Back in the late 90’s we were collecting plants on a ranch up near Canadian,TX and we visited a lease still using rod lines on their wells. One setup I’ll always remember had a central powerhouse with a big Fairbanks-Morse engine running a big horizontal wheel/disc cam. There were about 5 or 6 rod lines running out like spokes on a wagon wheel. Each line was hooked up to multiple pump jacks. It was an early engineering marvel I’ll never forget.
The last operating powerhouse I remember was about this same time.
Heck ya! Those Wells are still good wells. It basically cost pennies a day to run. I'm from West Texas and a 4 barrel a day was a keeper. Two thumbs up.
After I graduated high school in 1978, I worked in oilfield machine shops in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Utah until the oil boom bust in the early 1980s. Working in the oil industry never leaves your soul, I miss being around the petroleum business.
Sounds like the logging industry. It seems to be almost impossible not to get excited about it once you've done it.
I was a machinist during the oil boom and left that career path right before the oil bust in the 80’s. I use to make all kinds of oil tools including under reamers, whipstock packers, cementing tools, and junk mills. We made everything with manual machines until we finally purchased a CNC mill. I use to run an old Lodge and Shipley lathe with a taper attachment. The lathe came from a WW2 warship and still had a Navy tag on it. It was a great lathe and could really hog the steel.
@@picklerix6162 You might as well be speaking Chinese to us.
My five years in the og business was the most fun and hard work i do miss it the wife doesnt
My Grandfather was in charge of the "power " and drag lines to a field of wells somewhere North of Tulsa, Oklahoma back in the 1930 and '40s. I remember duscussions about how he and a team of horses would maintain that location. I wish I had paid more attention to all that history. I'm 78 years old and all I remember was Grandpa after he had retired from that oilfield job. There is only one relative still alive that might fill me in on some of that history and I have to make it a special prodject to get that recorded some way. Thanks for showing us that special part of our history. Salute !!!
Just write down all the information you can get and any pictures and offer it to your local library, they will usually happily put that information somewhere for future generations that are interested
We recently found a bunch of photos of my mother from when she was a kid because someone took pictures and wrote a little about what went on that year In our small town and just handed it to the local library
The breakdown of the math is great! It’s absolutely viable for these old wells to run their butt off for as long as they can. It’s great people like you and your buddies have interest and keep them running, with more and more oil projects getting shut down. That one well can support 30 people is an awesome fact.
Everything but the power and maintenance has long been paid off so whatever they produce minus those two costs is profit.
@@Cragified Kinda like what I tell my kids when picking a fast food restaurant: pick the oldest one you can find. They've paid off all their loans so they can afford to use the best ingredients and hire the best workers.
@@Cragified and 1/3 to the big guy.
@@drewodessa2483 that makes no sense at all lol what are you talking about
@@drewodessa2483 I seriously hope you do not have kids!
You did a great job breaking down why these older and smaller wells are important! Similar to smaller farmers are important! You put forth a lot of good logic showing why many don't exhibit common sense in some areas! One thing you didn't mention is that the money spent on the oil from your wells goes to someone who actually cares about America and that money goes into the American economy!! ... And not some foreign oil dealer who either hates America or could care less about America! Thank you for showing us this well and equipment! I hope it is in your family for 4 more generations!!
Exactly Thanks.
"Oklahoma jacks" were all over the Pennsylvania oilfields when I was young. I remember the "eccentric" powers that ran them, with rod lines coming out of the powerhouses like spokes on a bicycle wheel. Thanks for the memories.
I ran some numbers, & came up with guesstimate amount that rod going up & down in a year has traveled 5973 miles. Interesting video. See old stuff work is pretty neat.
Great video on the old rod line pumper!
In 1950 was First Grader living south of Corsicana and went to sleep many nights to the sound of an old Hit and Miss pulling some rod line pumpers. The few minutes on the end of the video sure was neat to hear those old sounds! Thanks for the memory.
Love hearing about your family's 4th generation operations. Great piece of history, thanks for posting. They still have a number of these rod lines running in West Virginia and Pennsylvania (maybe Kentucky too) but with some unique differences from what I've seen - everybody seems to have a different twist up there. The doll heads I saw were actually v-notched saplings or posts hammered into the ground, greased like you say. Many wells like this are operated using central pump houses incorporating a bull wheel and eccentric gear, with a number converted from steam to propane/gas, and some even electrified. I remember listening to those sounds too - classic!
Awesome. There used to be some others on youtube but it seemed most have been shut down.
@@TheZachLife Here's one up in northern Pennsylvania, near Bradford: ruclips.net/video/oTyhlFciTRY/видео.html
Young man … you are authentic, decent and likeable! Your dad and granddad left more than an oilfield legacy - they raised decent Americans.
Very cool! Old machinery still working.
Wow. My Grandpa's wells in Pleasants County WV were almost exactly like that. The only difference was that instead of rods, he used wire lines running to all of his wells. He had an "engine house" where he had an air-cooled Wisconsin engine that ran on natural gas. It spun a really big "eccentric" that had rods connected to it, and Grandpa then had wire lines that connected to the rods going out to the wells. He pumped at least 4 or 5 wells with that one engine. I know all about under pull and over pull jacks. Going up and down the hillside, he had to have 'hold-ups" and "hold-downs" for the wire lines so that the pump jacks were actually pulled by the engine, rather than the lines just shooting up and down in the air (like if a hold-down failed). When that happened, the pulling force was not transferred to the pump jacks. I helped him splice many wire lines that broke or to repair a hold-down that came loose at the bottom, etc. Trees falling on the wire lines was another problem. It was hard work for a teen age boy. LOL
That would cripple the young ones in 3 hrs today.
I myself being from Pleasants Co. WV and I just happened to click on this channel about these jack lines pumping these wells. I remember going to a neighbors old homeplace out from New Matamoras, Ohio somewhere close to the Little Muskingum River, and seeing these iron lines running along the ground ....still pumping. I was just a kid. Now 79 years old myself. Remember it very vivid ally to this day. My Grandpa was Bernard Riggs and he as a young man worked on the oil fields out around Horseneck, Pleasants Co. I'm just curious as to who you are ....and perhaps my name is familiar to you.?? My name is Jack Riggs, and I grew up in St.Marys and lived just across the hiway from Quaker State refinery.
@@jackriggs1108 Your name sounds familiar, but probably from family connections. My Grandfather's name was Benton Green, and he lived for a time in St. Marys. He was born out at Henry Camp, and that was where his lease was. My name is Thomas Delany and I live in Tennessee now.
@@jackriggs1108 My Great Aunts, Fonda and Grace Locke lived in a house on 2nd Street in St. Mary's, and I recall fondly sitting on their front porch as a kid, watching trains go down the street in front of their house.
@@Marvinfj32 LOL. Most likely.
I was just sitting here watching about that 1938 gun barrell water-oil seperator when a new video dropped. Thanks Zach!
Thank you for this. As a 71 year old man retired in Florida, and from Waurika Ok, it brought back a lot of home.
Thanks for watching
My daddy was from Wilson.
Enjoyed that a lot. I grew up on the prairie in Osage County Oklahoma and my dad was a pumper. On a small hill just above our house was a Power House, as they were called at the time. It was large, about 50' x 30' and made of tin. Some posters below have mentioned these. This one ran on propane or gas, with a large 1-cylinder motor driving a belt that turned that big heavy flywheel laid sideways in a shallow depression of the concrete floor. A large diameter exhaust pipe came out at about a 45-degree angle, probably 10" diameter, 6' long with a baloney-slice end. Any trucker would have been proud to hear it. About a dozen rod lines ran off the eccentric of that flywheel all across the landscape. Where it went under the gravel well roads there was a steel 10" casing pipe, and in the fall and winter we'd shove rabbits out to eat. Besides doll heads, our rod lines at intervals had a bipod swing, as it was called. Two vertical pipes about three feet apart and 5' tall or so. Between at the top was a cross pipe that could swing and got greased. From the center of this hung a smaller diameter pipe with a clamp to the rod. This allowed the rod to swing, but also got it elevated for changes uphill or downhill. We got so used to the faint but steady crashing of the jacks, as well as the engines on the wells that we almost needed them to fall asleep. We all knew when working cattle to beware the rod lines. Many a pumper had a fence around his company doghouse made of the rods. When the houses were taken out of service around there in the early 60's we bought one from Texaco, took it down and made a small barn for our horses.
There were still two operating power houses like you describe south of Calpet, Wyoming in the early 70s. Texaco still had a camp that I think was built in the 1940s. Texaco bought the lease those old pumpjacks were on and replaced them with electric motors. Belco Petroleum had a lot of pumpjacks in the area that had natural gas motors on them. Fortunately the wind drowned out the noise of all those engines so that we could sleep at night.
Thanks for the description. I was wondering about the mechanics of having all those rod lines moving around the landscape.
This is crazy cool. I hope it keeps pumping for decades.
When I was in high school up in Borger , TX I would ride around the oilfield roads during the summer (before I started working at a paving company). I found a big wheel (bull wheel) laid out horizontally on the ground. I can't say for sure but if memory serves me right the wheel was at least 10' in diameter. Sucker rods were connected to the eccentrics on the wheel (I think) and they went out to pump jacks, or what was left of them. I was told that a steam engine drove the wheel with a belt but I never saw that. My dad built gas plants for a living, I followed in his shoes and I have spent my life working in oil and gas. I have worked for a large privately owned oil and gas company for about 12 or 13 years. We have production, crude oil pipelines and pumps stations, gas pipelines, gas gathering, and gas processing plants in numerous states including Alaska. It's good to see someone putting a positive light on our industry. Hydrogen and carbon... that's all it is...
Thank you for sharing this video. I love the oilfield. I represented the fifth generation of The Bovaird Supply Company. We were incorporated in 1871 and sold/manufactured equipment for over 120 years. I love the older pieces.
Thats really awesome.
Just started watching your channel always was fascinated with oil wells I grew up in Southern California near the beach where oil wells are everywhere. There was even some areas where oil seeps up through the ground makes a small pool of oil right on the ground you can hike to. I bet most people in the US have no idea just how much oil production goes on in Southern California oil wells are everywhere even right in the middle of the cites. Wouldn't know it now days unless you look at google earth they put walls around them. Don't listen to the negative comments I think it's really cool that you preserved the historic wells it's a part of American history where would America be without oil??
Thanks, I agree.
It will be priceless when everyone wants electric and you’re the guy who wants gasoline and oil
I restore 100 year old Cast Iron FDNY Fire Alarms. The metal is just as good today as it was in 1921. There is very little deep penetration. Almost ALL of it is Surface Rust. Our Grandparents were way smarter than we will ever hope to be. They were craftsman back then. 63 year old oil well still working. Amazing.
From my understanding, all the old US steel/iron had a higher nicle content and fewer other contaminants... so it resisted corrosion better.
Brings back memories. Back in the 80's I worked for a drilling contractor out of Nowata OK. When we weren't drilling wells in Osage County we were washing down and plugging wells like this in the Tulsa area. The rod lines ran everywhere and were powered by a big steel wheel in a huge wheel house. Fun to warch, thanks!
The steel wheel in a wheel house sounds like what I came across just outside of Sperry. I have pics I wish I could show you to see if it is what you're talking about.
I go past a group of these in MO occasionally. Couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw them.
I’m really glad that you preserved this rod line oil pump jack I sincerely hope you continue to keep it running for many years to come
Thank You ! I can remember the clank of the rod lines and the exhaust of the power unit chugging away so slowly in the summer nights, it's a sound and memory that I don't think I can forget growing up in Oklahoma. I miss it, very fond memories for me...
This history and practice is pretty fascinating. And there's nothing like watching and listening to old equipment work tirelessly
March 2023 and I just stumbled across this. A piece of history that needs looking after indeed. Thanks so much for sharing, it looked so beautiful out there.
That last minute was pure bliss. Thank you.
Thanks.
Very cool. About 15 years ago, I was running a small esp on an old lease way off the beaten path in SE Kansas. I took a different route out of there, and ran across an old power house with about 5 of these running off of it. I had to stop and let it all soak in. Another tech I worked with was a big hunter, and was out chasing raccoons one night. He about freaked out when he felt something start moving under his feet. He had stumbled upon another old power house lease NE of Tulsa a little ways, and was on the old shackle rod buried under the grass. I also remember stumbling across the old draw works(really not sure what it’s called, but the unit that the shackle rods hooked to) of a power house mostly buried in the dirt south of Kilgore many years ago. I love the history of the patch. So much to see and learn out there, and surprisingly, still more of this old stuff running in places than people realize.
The rods were linked to an eccentric wheel which took power from the central power house. This turned the circular motion into a straight-line motion for the rods.
Thanks, yes its called an eccentric even if its a newer gearbox and crank type.
I love watching your videos, I retired after 37 years working for a large independent oil company that had huge safety and environmental department's that made operations difficult, they would have a heart attack if the walked through your lease,
I can't tell you how much I appreciate this video. I know nothing about oil wells but I do love machinery. Thank You for this. I will be researching old oil wells now until I'm satisfied. I think people need to learn something new every day and you supplied a new topic for me.
That is pretty wild that something so simple still pumps oil out of the ground 60 years later!
We had a FEW of those in Illinois, the price crash of 2008 wiped them out.
My grandfather was a pumper in Washington County ok. I can remember going with him to the lease. I can remember the rod house and old pump Jack's. Everything you have shown sure does bring back alot of memories. Thanks.
Beautiful scenery. I like how the antique machines have blended in
I walked many miles of rod with a bucket of crud oil to the powerhouse. This brought so many good memories. Thank
Those things remind me of our travels around the States when I was between 10 and 13 years old.
Now I'm 61, and I still have memories of huge areas just covered in those things.
Super neat.
Same here. So nostalgic😢
I grew up outside of oil city pa. At that time there were a lot of them around. There was one about a mile from the house and on certain nights you could hear it run. It was powered by a hit and miss engine that i believe ran on casing head gas or so iwas told. We also could hear the cars racing at tri city speedway near Franklin on Sat night. Oh also whip o wills, used to keep my dad awake.
Love this story , America at it's best! Great history. Greatly appreciated thx.
My grand father spent 43 years as a structural welder working for Lee C Moore inc. building platform rigs.
I am the same age as this well, I was in the exploration, started as a roughneck and worked my way to a driller from 1979 - 1987. Sourlake TX is where I ran into same theory but using sucker rod layer on the 3" by 3" 10 ''or 20 ft boards all connected end to end across the ground from a wheel house to the pump jacks. A huge locomotive looking cast iron wheel with a Diesel engine or maybe a steam engine in the early days mover sucker rod across the oiled wood runs for miles to 25 too 50 wells. The crazy think was the holding tanks were made of wood like a keg or large barrel to hold the oil pumped out of the ground. Pipelines ran very where along the ground from the wells the the wooded holding tanks ... Thank you for you channel and explaining what really goes on in the old days
Always wondered why pumping rigs were called jacks, but it makes perfect sense when you finally see a real pump jack. It is exactly that, a pump actuated by a jack.
Exactly.
Memories. Yeah, I'm very familiar with the old grasshopper dragline jacks. Daddy bought an old rundown farm in Barren County Kentucky in 1952. It sat on a "yellowcap" 470' pool. There were 6 minimally producing wells pumped by the drag lines on doll head posts. I followed my granddad on his daily rounds pumping the wells. Power came from a reciprocating turnhead driven by a old one lung engine. Pa would start the thing, put the turnhead in gear and walk every inch of the lease. By noon we'd be back to shut it down and eat lunch. 3 or 4 of the wells were pulled, spuded, bailed clean, new cups installed and put on electric motors with different jacks. Years later the wells were shutdown, pulled and plugged. Most of the dollhead posts were gathered but several times I'd find one while cutting haw with a sickle bar mower😠. Thanks for sharing.
God there's something beautiful about that last clip and the noise of the pump.
We still have rod lines on the striper wells in Montana. Been all over the world as a specialty petroleum engineer but went to school in Montana back in the '70s started oilfield work in the summers while in high school on worker overs and drilling rigs before going to school; I spent time in the west and east and south Texas offshore also. Your videos being back both fond and a few nightmare memories
Im in Oklahoma myself. Have recently found your channel. Love the old wells. My grandfather owned some land many many years ago that had a few wells on it. One was steam powered everything was still there but hadnt been in use for some time.
Fellow Oklahoman and recently came across the channel too👍🏼😂 Good content for sure!
Sounds pretty cool.
Tulsa. Grew in In prue. Osage County
thanks for the introduction to something some of us from the midwest (michigan) never get to see or experience! i mean we have wells in michgan but nothing from the era that pushed/led this country in the modern world. that history and a familiy tie is awseome!
this guy is just casually in one of the most beautiful and calming places ever
thank you for sharing the information about these wells and also thank you for having the wisdom to know that we would enjoy just experiencing the sounds of the well pump.
When I was living in Odessa TX in the 80s, I had a old guy show me a piece of machinery, it had a pully on one end and 90* a fitting on the other when you spun the pully it caused the fitting to move back and forth, he said it was to operate wells like you are showing today.
When I was roustebouting in the 70s I remember seeing those pieces of pipe sticking up out of the grass in places and wondering what they were for
It might have been a pivot thats used to make the rod line go around a corner.
Thanks for keeping this alive and making this video.
A LONG TIME AGO, I knew a kid in California that I used to hang out with and ride bikes together. On his 18th birthday he was given an oil well. A more modern version. And I never saw him again. I did spot him in a bar with two absolutely GORGEOUS women. But he was rich by then. Lucky dude. Just one oil well made him super rich. I hope he's doing okay now a days.
Great video. My ex-wife's grand-dad had pumped a 'jack-line' in Pennsylvania. He said his was circular with central power and lines radiating out like spokes to the jacks. He told me (I was the only family member who worked in the oilfields and wanted to listen) of a relief pumper in winter who'd gotten his coat caught up in the line and was killed. He warned me to never wear loose clothing around pumping units (we have pumping units in CA) and it's stayed with me 50+ years. Lou was a tough old roughneck who worked fields across the nation and I miss him...Men of iron and derricks of wood.
The cool part about setups like you describe is that each of the units balances the others. So one 8 or 10 HP motor can pump 6 or 10 wells as they are all in balance.
Thanks for sharing this video. I saw an operating rod line system in eastern Kansas. It had the powerhouse with the large wheel and thick belt. I made a living in the Oil Patch. When I watch your videos it makes me smile.
Be proud, struttin around on grand pa"s ground doin what he did is gold!
You have been trained well by your grandfather and father. You are one of a very few people that can get the job done. I retired a few years ago from oil well supply store in North Central Texas because of the young ones that came to work and says that’s not my job. Maybe you could charge people for a ride along. Love your channel.
Thanks for keeping this kind of mechanical history alive and sharing it with us.
Man that's cool Zach! Please keep that old jack running as long as you can, it's so important, and just really cool to keep some history alive! Not just on display, but still alive and earning it's keep. I think it's really neat that you have 4 generations of family history too, don't see that much anymore. I enjoyed listening to racket of that old pump jack at the end of the video, little bit of time travel was fun 👍
Pretty cool seeing the simplicity of the equipment. Thanks for taking the time to share it with everyone.
That’s really cool. I hope it keeps on going for future generations to see how it was done back in the day. ✨✅✨
It's good to hear that you think of family.. to take what you learned in the old ways and keep it alive today.. always a good value. Wish to get a chance spend some time out in the fields and just listen to then story's you have.. even if it only a day.
As a kid in Texas, I'm still here by choice, my dad would describe what sounds I was hearing as pump units running on hit and miss engines, and explain what was going on. Needing to know more, he'd walk me out to see for myself.
Looking at 'Oil Patch' cartoons, I could imagine working the oil wells in the west Texas, a dream that has yet to hit reality.
I drive through Saratoga and Batsun when going to his place now, and see them and reminisce. Thanks
My father' Dad Ernest worked the oil lines up until about 1939. He did maintenance and greased the "doll heads." Hard life in tar paper shack and far from everything had three kids then. Many stories and most sad. I saw these as a child when we would drive the oil fields in the 50's in his Model A. I lived in Turley and Tulsa and Sand Springs. I am 77.
That's incredible. I LOVE that rodline setup. That's a great well, being drilled in when it was and it's STILL pumping oil.
Love it! Thanks I live in Ok and ride the back roads I see them all the time and I know that the men who worked them deserve allot of respect for there contribution to the the past GOD bless them!
Very very interesting Captain Zach. It amazes me.
If I would have just few animals in this hot conditions, this well would be a blessing!
My grandfather who I was named for lost some fingers in a rod line somewhere here in N. Texas. I don't know when he was injured but he was working on a drilling rig in Electra when my mother was born in 1919. He later was a pumper and a roustabout so I am guessing it was when he was a pumper. He died around 1950 before I was born in 1952. My father never worked in the oilfield but I spent 8 years roughnecking and drilling so I somewhat returned to my roots.
We got some pumpjacks like that at the oil museum in Brea CA were I grew up. Nice to have your channel show it in action. Thanks, we're learning alot
Zach I can't tell you how much I enjoy your channel. Everytime traveling through Oklahoma and Texas I would see the wells and wonder about them. You do a wonderful job explaining and have a great personality. Keep it up!!
Thanks.
Music to my ears keep that old pump jack singing my brother👍👍
I LIVE IN PONCA CITY, OKLAHOMA... THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE HISTORY ALIVE... WE ALL CAN LEARN AND ENJOY THE RAW MECHANICS OF THIS UNIT AND GET A SMILE.
Reminds me of when some of the wells in Clay County Illinois had hit and miss engines running a pump. Those hit and miss engines are incredible and unique in their own perspectives!
Thanks for keeping the history alive, Zach! #StayAwesome #Hero!
That was very cool. I remember visiting the Phillips museum in Bartlesville Oklahoma a decade ago, and they have huge diorama of Phillips earliest old field. It's a functioning model with a cable (rod line?) snaking from the boiler through the entire oil patch providing power to the various pieces of equipment. Nice seeing an actual working example, perhaps the last living example of that era. 👍 (might consider a video of that 🙂)
This Okie from T-Town loves this video! Thanks for the history lesson.
What a piece of history, great video, and that touch at the ending was really nice, letting us hear it for a couple of minutes
Thanks Zach! Like the history and I think it’s great that some of this old equipment is still operating! Keep posting the videos please.
Thats the plan.
Thank you for sharing. I had no idea there were small Wells like that in operation. I thought it was all major corporations thanks again.
My dad had a bulk oil dealership when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time with him delivering gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil. We had above ground bulk tanks and I remember putting the pipe into the compartment hatch, opening the valve and watching the liquid run into a compartment and closing the valve when the liquid hit the right ring. I always wondered, "where did all of this stuff really come from"? The one line diagrams in the books leave the how it really works part out. Thank you for the continuing education, very informative and very cool!
My dad was born at Qualls and grew up in Cherokee County. He considered Tahlequah his home town. He talked many times about a gas well that a drilling company left blowing to the wind somewhere in that area in the 1940’s I believe. He said they would use the roar from the open gas pipe as a locator when coon hunting at night. He passed away at age 87 in 2017.
These were all over Tullos, Louisiana when I was growing-up in the 1950's. The oil deposit was a single dome, so all of the wells were "stripper wells" with various types of pumps used. There was quite a cacophony of sounds during the nights. There was one pump-type driven by a small gasoline engine that went "pop-pop-pop" thru the night until it wan out of fuel. THe sound lulled me to sleep and when the fuel ran out, the sound stopped and I woke-up.
we had a gas pump on our land near the Ok/Kansas border near Edna
It was just like this one this just brought back lots of memories we recently sold the land but being out there with my grandfather and dad was always fun
Awesome!! Love seeing the old stuff still working.
Hey Zach. Nice to know I'm not the only one hung up on his grandpas all oilfield stuff. I remember walking to the power house to knock off an under pull with my dad so they could pull it when I was a kid.
These old jacks are cool. Thanks for sharing.
What a wonderful old piece of engineering that's just been getting on with doing it's job since 1959! And it has a wooden bearing that's never been changed; amazing! Thank you for preserving this old girl and sharing such a piece of history. I particularly enjoyed the last couple of minutes of the video; watching the gentle, unhurried motion of the pump, listening to the hypnotic sound it makes and appreciating the stark beauty of the landscape which has been it's home for the past 63 years.
65 years!!
I love this. thank you. I miss working the oil patch in the DJ basin. too many ups and downs that it was hard to budget for a family. it was simple yet hard work. Some of the wells we maintained in the Pawnee Grasslands and also around Walden, Colorado on the western slope were drilled over a century ago. I know the Pawnees have been modernized due to fracking but the wells around Walden are still the same, producing maybe a barrel a day and some doing 10 to 20.