The Spirit of Santa Rita
Under the auspices of Santa Rita, Saint of the Impossible,
on May 27, 1923, the first oil well on University land
blew in, out of control, and to the utter amazement of the
operators who had toiled for so long and so patiently with un-
remitting faith, courage, and persistence.
The Santa Rita well in Reagan County was the University
discovery well in the great Permian Basin, and its literal
eruption was the most fortuitous combination of the forces
of nature and the labors of man, heralding a new economic
and social era in a vast and largely undeveloped domain, the
full significance and beneficence of which is even now hardly
comprehensible.
The royalties to The University of Texas ensuing from this
and subsequent discoveries, and the wise use to which the same
have been and are now being devoted, and the changes wrought
in the course of the history of Texas, have made this modest
celebration of the Twenty-first Anniversary of the event an
appropriate occasion for the members of the Texas oil industry
to appraise the event, and also do honor to two great Texas
institutions: The University of Texas and the Texas State
Historical Association.
These two institutions are devoted to the exaltation of the
spirit, cultivation of the mind, and activation of a virile and
dynamic patriotism through the dissemination of knowledge
of the experiences of the past, and the advancement of our
material well-being under a political system that enlists the
fullest expression of the freedom of man and the subserviency
of the State to that inviolate freedom. They are each in part
custodians of the fruits of this achievement, and worthily
have they performed their trust.
But the event which we are gathered to celebrate is not
the product of miraculous occurrence, royal beneficence, dic-
tator's edict, or socialized planning. It is the natural conse-
quence of a continuing expression of the fundamental truths
that have become manifest through the ageless experience of
mankind in its upward surge throughout the centuries for
its most cherished aspiration--freedom.
It is a happy concomitance, then, that education, history,
and the free enterprise of the individual citizen find mutual
satisfaction, justification, and renewed strength in the con-
tinuance of achievements alike unto that celebrated upon
this day.
Santa Rita and all of its beneficent consequences are no
more the result of accident than the consequences of the estab-
lishment of this great seat of general education at Austin, or
the accumulated influence of this great learned society in
the field of historical and patriotic endeavor. Each of these
crowning accomplishments have come from the natural, yet
expected, fruition of a wise, far-seeing, and humanistic policy,
rooted deep in the consciousness of the founders of the Republic
of Texas, and eloquently expressed in the sapient and pro-
found message of President Mirabeau B. Lamar to the Congress
of the Republic of Texas in December, 1833,
1 which is, in part,
as follows:
If
we
desire
to
establish
a
republican
government
upon
a
broad
and
permanent
basis,
it
will
be
our
duty
to
adopt
a
comprehensive
and
well
-
regulated
system
of
mental
and
moral
culture.
Education is a subject
in which every citizen and especially every parent, feels a deep and
lively concern. It is one in which no jarring interests are involved, and
no acrimonious political feelings excited; for its benefits are so universal
that all parties can unite in advancing it. It
is
admitted
by
all
that
the
cultivated
mind
is
the
guardian
genius
of
democracy
and,
while
guided
and
controlled
by
virtue,
is
the
noblest
attribute
of
man.
It
is
the
only
dictator
that
freemen
acknowledge
and
the
only
security
that
freemen
desire.
The
influence
of
education
in
the
moral
world,
as
in
the
physical,
renders
luminous
what
was
before
obscure.
It opens a wide field for
the exercise and improvement of all the faculties of man, and imparts
vigor and clearness to those important truths in the science of govern-
ment, as well as of morals, which would otherwise be lost in the darkness
of ignorance. Without its aid how perilous and insufficient would be
the deliberations of a government like ours! How ignoble and useless
its legislation for all the purposes of happiness! How fragile and in-
secure its liberties! War
would
be
conducted
without
the
science
neces
-
sary
to
secure
success,
and
its
bitterness
and
calamities
would
be
un
-
relieved by the ameliorating circumstances which the improved con-
dition of man has imparted to it. Peace would be joyless, because its
train would be unattended by that civilization and refinement which alone
can give zest to social and domestic enjoyments; and how shall we protect
our rights if we do not comprehend them? And can we comprehend them
unless we acquire a knowledge of the past and present condition of things,
and practice the habit of enlightened reflection? Cultivation is necessary
to the supply of rich intellectual and moral fruits, as are the labors
of the husbandman to bring forth the valuable productions of the earth.
But it would be superfluous to offer this honorable congress any ex-
tended argument to enforce the practical importance of this subject. I
feel fully assured that it will, in that liberal spirit of improvement which
pervades the social world, lose not the auspicious opportunity to pro-
vide for literary instructions, with an influence commensurate with our
future destinies. To patronize the general diffusion of knowledge, industry
and charity, has been near to the heart of the good and wise of all
nations, while the ambitious and the ignorant would fain have threatened
a policy so pure and laudable. But the rich domes and spires of edifices
consecrated to these objects, which are continually increasing in numbers,
throwing their scenic splendor over civilization and attesting the patriotism
of their founders, show that this unhallowed purpose has not been ac-
complished. Our
young
republic
has
been
formed
by
a
Spartan
spirit.
Let
it
progress
and
ripen
into
Roman
firmness
and
Athenian
gracefulness
and
wisdom.
Let those names which have been inscribed on the standard
of her national glory be found also on the pages of her history, associated
with that profound and enlightened policy which is to make our country
a bright link in that chain of free states which will some day encircle
and unite in harmony the American continent. Thus, and thus only, will
true glory be perfected; and our nation, which has sprung from the
harsh trump of war, be matured into the refinements and tranquil
happiness of peace.
Let me, therefore, urge upon you, gentlemen, not to postpone the matter
too long. The
present
is
a
propitious
moment
to
lay
the
foundation
of
a
great
moral
and
intellectual
edifice,
which
will
in
after
ages
be
hailed
as
the
chief
ornament
and
blessing
of
Texas.
A suitable appropriation
of lands to the purpose of general education can be made at this time,
without inconvenience to the government or the people; but defer it until
the public domain shall have passed from our hands, and the uneducated
youths of Texas will constitute the living monuments of our neglect
and remissness.
To appraise faithfully the paramount and enduring per-
formances that have eventuated from this chartered course,
outlined for the infant Republic, we must briefly examine
the stormy past of Texas in contrast with the future evolved
in the climate of enlightened freedom so soundly portrayed
and so eloquently and wisely adjured.
Frank Pickrell, Haymon Krupp, Rupert Ricker, Hugh
camp near the waters of the Concho in an enterprise re-
quiring courage, vision, hardihood, intrepidity, and skill, but
they were clearly envisioned in the enlightened concept of
President Lamar. The Indians that first occupied this region
in undisturbed possession were "unattended by that civiliza-
tion and refinement which alone can give zest to social and
domestic enjoyments," and they did not hold to the truth that
"the cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy, and
while guided and controlled by virtue, is the noblest attribute
of man."
The advent of civilized people to the region of Santa Rita
and the Concho was not on a mission of peace, but upon an
enterprise of conquest, and the Conquistadores were not the
exponents of a republican form of government for free men,
but were the paladins of a royal autocracy.
The primary purpose of Coronado and the early Conquista-
dores was the conquest of new lands, actually or supposedly
rich in hard mineral wealth; the seizure of the gold and silver;
the subjugation and pacification of those peopling such lands;
and, in many instances, to their enduring credit, the paralleling
effort of courageous and zealous priests to accomplish an ex-
tension of the Christian faith.
Over four hundred years ago, Hernando Cortés, Captain-
General of New Spain, was occupying his palace at Cuernavaca.
He was the Conqueror of a New World, but he was the subject
of the Crown of Spain and the servant of the Council of the
Indies. In his intrepid explorations in search of mineral wealth
for his Royal Master, he surveyed wide areas, gathered vast
riches, and paid to Royalty its bountiful dues.
Notwithstanding the wealth in bullion poured into Royal
Spanish coffers by the Conquistadores in Mexico, Peru, and in
the Indies, a restless and untiring spirit of daring and adventure
kept exploration, conquest, seizure, and pacification the rule of
procedure under Royal Commissions for centuries, with the
extension of the Faith a subsidiary and largely separate phase,
although notable in its accomplishments.
The early Conquistador Cortés conquered the Valley of Mex-
ico and subjugated the Mayas; Coronado sought the fabled
Seven Cities of Cibola, intent upon the confiscation of fabulous
mineral wealth, leaving a long trail of failure and disappoint-
ment; but Pickrell, Krupp, Ricker, Tucker, and Cromwell,
and their contemporaries and successors, by the employment
of the arts of peace, science and industry, have penetrated the
realms of the Permian, the Ordovician, and other geologic
regions with an incomparably greater yield in riches, and ac-
tually found the veritable Seven Cities of Cibola in Big Lake,
in the Pecos, in Hobbs, in Yates, in Winkler, in McCamey,
in Texon, and in numerous subterranean provinces of un-
imagined wealth.
The early Conquistador Juan de Oñate engaged in the search
for the mythical Straits of Anián, which were believed to
connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and an intermediate
"North Sea," the harbors of which were to be carefully mapped,
but not used until appropriate regulations could be prescribed
therefor, with the usual eventuality of pursuing false rumor;
but Pickrell and his pioneering associates reduced to possession
the fruits of a successful exploration of the actual "North
Sea" -- the Permian Basin.
The galleons of old, laden with gold and silver, brought their
wealth to Spanish royalty; but the dues paid to the viceroy
and the council of the Indies, and the total exactions of
Spanish royalty and all of the prizes of the gold hunters' era
are dwarfed into insignificance compared to the royalties ac-
cruing to the sovereign citizens of our State and their great
educational institution, and were a mere triviality compared
with the one billion, seven hundred million dollars paid during
the past twenty-one years in lease rentals and royalties to
the farmers and ranchers and landowners of our State, and
the sum of one billion, three hundred and fifty million dollars
paid during the same period in various forms of taxes to our
State and local governments.
During this period of time the oil industry of Texas has paid
in taxes, for the support of the public schools of this State, a
grand total of over two hundred and forty-three million dollars.
In the past twenty-one years oil has accomplished prodigious
changes:
(1) Average daily production in May, 1923, of approximately three
hundred thousand barrels per day is now approximately two mil-
lion barrels per day.
(2) A similar increase in refining capacity has merged into its mani-
fold activities hundreds of millions of dollars invested in aviation
gasoline and synthetic rubber plants.
(3) Great trunk line transportation systems now traverse the inland
and overland routes to the Great Lakes, the Gulf, and the Atlantic
Ocean.
(4) Natural gas has been discovered, developed, and distributed in an
expansion paralleling the prodigious performances in oil.
(5) Twenty-three oil fields are now yielding: royalty revenues to The
University of Texas, from University lands in Andrews, Crane,
Crockett, Ector, Pecos, Reagan, and Ward counties.
(6) Increased wealth widely diffused throughout our entire population
has made itself manifest in the almost miraculous statistics of
population increase, added property values, astounding expansion
of life insurance, the migration of related and associated indus-
tries and manufacturing enterprises to Texas, the total effect
of which is typified by the striking contrast between The University
of Texas of today and over twenty-one years ago.
The history of the accomplishment of the oil industry in
Texas during the past twenty-one years can only be hinted at
in this brief resume. The advancements in technology have
even exceeded, in proportion, the comparative production in
volume and the comparative proven reserves in quantity. The
improvement in quality, and the increased yields in gasoline
content due to improved refining methods, are only matched
by the reduced retail price of gasoline, exclusive of tax.
All of this has been a necessary progression in every phase
of the industry as an indispensable prelude to the maximum
effort now being expended by the oil industry in Texas as a
contribution to the winning of a war completely mechanized and
motorized, whose bomber and fighter planes, whose battleships,
cruisers, submarines, transports, and landing ships, and whose
tanks, tank destroyers, and artillery are all propelled by the
products of oil.
But it is not of material resources alone and the accomplish-
ments of industry and science, that I would speak. There has
been nurtured and preserved in the mind and heart of our
people that indomitable attitude toward life that is "Texian,"
and that has its truest reflection in an unchallenged position
of primacy in the number of volunteers in the Army, the
Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Corps in this War, and
the courage and heroism that they have exhibited upon the
seven seas and throughout the earth. The spirit of the pioneer
is still within them, --- undiminished, undaunted, and unfraid.
possible. As I said upon another occasion of Dad Joiner, I
may with equal truth say of Frank Pickrell and his comrades:
No chart of government pointed the way. No managed economy under-
wrote the risk. No authoritarian regulation measured the prospect. No
bureaucracy supplied the incentive, by mandate or bounty; and not even
contemporaneous geologic concept furnished the inspiration. The true
spirit of the pioneer, -- the independent enterprise of a free American
citizen who still believed in and cherished the opportunities that America
affords; the same courage and self-reliance and indomitable will that
conquered the wilderness of earlier years, that peopled the plains and the
mountains beyond the far horizons for the beneficent uses of America
today, that still guide and animate and propel the sturdy, pioneering
Americans of this day, for whom the simple frontiers of our pioneer
fathers have been multiplied, many times over, in incalculable number,
variety and opportunity, resided in the spirit, and in the heart, and the
will of Frank Pickrell. Let us pray that these United States may throughout
the future, as in the past, nurture and preserve, and proudly cherish
the pioneer and let his courageous, undaunted, and unterrified spirit and
faith forever remain the heart and the core of free America.
FOOTNOTES:
Rita Discovery Well, delivered at Austin, Texas, May 27, 1944, at a
dinner of the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, honoring The
University of Texas and the Texas State Historical Association.
20, 1838; the Lamar Papers, Charles Gulick, Jr. (ed.), II, 348-349, give the
date as December 21, 1838.
How to cite:
George A. Hill, Jr., "The Spirit of Santa Rita", Volume 48, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v048/n1/contrib_DIVL1422.html
[Accessed Mon Nov 23 20:09:56 CST 2009]
