I operated an old Texaco discovery in Atascosa County, between Charlotte and Dilley about 40 years ago. It was a 5,500 foot Olmos water flood; God what a pain in the ass that was. I could never, I repeat ever, keep the injection wells going and was forever changing out swabs and liners, doing acid work on wells, squeezing, drill outs; yikes. Over and above a couple hundred bucks per well per month to operate that stuff I think I got $250 bucks per 14 hour day for consulting workovers, etc. An outfit named Plains Resources owned the field; I drilled three wells for them down in that crap; they eventually sold it, thank God, and not long after than I got out of the contract operating business to focus on my own stuff.
I gave up trying to count all the rattlesnakes I killed in that field over a couple of years. They were under every pear bush, in and around the triplex skids, tanks, separators; every pumping unit had a snake under it, every flowline. They liked the hum, heat and vibrations of engines and motors...man, you just did not even get out the pickup without knowing you were going to kill at least three snakes that morning. There was an old shed by the tank battery that had fittings in it and if you went in to get something you could hear the damn things under the floor boards hissing. It would almost give you the willies, which, by the way, is way different than the heebie jeebies. The heebie jeebies a fella can almost live with, not the willies.
Whatever anybody else says, these sumbitches DO NOT taste like chicken either, no matter how much beer you drink.
The stuff we had to do to make ends meet when we were kids. Anyway, this little sign is all I have to remember that field by. Which, come to think of it, is plenty good enough for me.
The Texas Company changed their name to Texaco in 1959. I put this sign in the 1946-1947 time frame.