© 1972-2017 Don Richards
My great-grandparents, Hosea and Octavie Baton, homesteaded their farm in Rusk County, Texas in the early 1900s. The Hosea Baton No. 1 oil well was drilled in the early 1930s. My mom tells about how she would climb its derrick when she was a girl, and I did the same as a boy. The well has mostly played out, the farm is now a pine thicket, and the ‘old home place’ burned down a few years ago. Having worked in the oilfields of Alaska and Wyoming when I was in undergrad school, I was always fascinated with oil well pump jacks. For all these reasons, I‘ve long wanted to draw this particular one. (It was a lot harder to get right than I imagined.) My original pen-and-ink and airbrush drawing is 23” x 29”. (Scroll down to see my entire gallery. Click on the thumbnails to view larger images.)
2016 - Hosea Baton No. 1 Oil Well Pump Jack
