Got oil?: A Texas Tea Kinda Earthcache

The well that started the boom

My new muggle friend in the GZ

Joe Roughneck Time Capsule

 Even with the rain we were able to get out and see some of the area. A new friend who had never heard of geocaching was willing to take me and sumajhuarmi to visit Pioneer Park, a pull off along Texas Highway 64 west of Henderson, TX. What's so interesting about this little roadside park with picnic tables and historical markers? First, it is set to commemorate the first oil well to be tapped in this giant oil field in 1930. A wildcatter well driller named Dad Joiner had already put down two dry holes. He was on his third try when he hit oil. The resulting boom in the search for oil and in hiring attracted thousands of oil workers from many parts of the US. The little towns around the region began to grow in every respect as roughnecks and their families came to town to do their shopping. Many lived in the oil company camps. Even today you can see the operating oil wells in the region. The number of derricks you see is much less.

Second, it is the home of both an earthcache and a small regular cache. We approached from the east we could see the small derrick shaped covers over the picnic tables. We pulled in and went to the GZ for Earthcache Got Oil? (GC2B6FZ). Upon arrival the requirements took us to the Joe Roughneck monument. It told of the role these men played in the oil communities. They were normally men who came in from outside the community looking for employment. They have a fame as a rough and ready crowd of hard workers. We gathered the information necessary to gain credit for the geocache. Once done I convinced my friend that we could also find a regular geocache just 140 feet away. We sat out in the light rain until we arrived at the GZ for this cache. I stopped, thought about where I'd hide a cache if it were me, and then I looked. It was right there in the first place I looked. I showed my friend how you sign the log and replace the cache. He was happy for me but I didn't see any lights going off so I don't think I have a convert in this friend.

If you get the chance to visit Henderson, be sure to head west a little in order to visit the Pioneer Park.