Austin, Texas story
The Patron Saint of the Impossible
What if a multi-billion-dollar future depended on a deadline just four hours away? Back in August of 1921, drillers in West Texas were racing against the clock. They started drill…
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What if a multi-billion-dollar future depended on a deadline just four hours away? Back in August of 1921, drillers in West Texas were racing against the clock. They started drilling a well on University of Texas land just four hours before their permit was set to expire.
Appropriately, they named the well Santa Rita Number One, after the patron saint of the impossible. For nearly two years, they kept at it. Then, in the early morning hours of May 28, 1923, the impossible happened.
The well struck oil, spraying crude high over the derrick and changing the university's financial future forever. It became the first bona fide oil well on university lands, producing for nearly sixty-seven years before being plugged in 1990. In 1940, the university actually moved much of the original rig right here to the campus in Austin.
Keep your stride going as we uncover more impossible tales.
Updated June 2026