Chapter 44

Crow Ridge Drilling Rig #1 November 29, 1884

The men loaded in four wagons before daylight and left the barn, headed toward the drilling rig once more. Albert, James, Leon, and Smitty had gotten the patched-up leather drive belt back on the steam engine late the evening before. They were pleased with the repairs and each had confidence they would begin drilling today and have a good run at sinking a drill down to find oil. Bill and Jack Robertson had made them up another belt the same size as the one they re-laced. They had a spare now and everyone, including Eli, felt even better about the rig.

Eli and the fellow marshals rode over on their horses, accompanied by the Young Bucks. The girls said they would be over as soon as they could, but had asked Ben Barkley to go ahead and saddle their horses for them, before he left with the others.

Big Eddy had the drilling rig lit and a head of steam in the little boiler when they arrived at the drill site.

Albert, James, Leon, and Smitty were dressed in their boiler overalls and the twenty-seven new hired hands wore theirs too. Each of them had new, long cuff leather gloves. Eli, Duncan, Moses and Joe each wore the boiler overalls over their buckskins for added warmth. Jon David and the Barkley brothers all wore long heavy wool Mackinaw overcoats to protect from the chilly north wind whipping down across the open plains.

The Young Bucks also wore long wool overcoats they’d gotten from Perryman’s.

They were ready to drill for oil.

The drilling was slow again this morning, but the repaired lacing on the leather drive belt was holding like a new one. In six hour’s time, they had only drilled a few feet. This was going to be a long day!

When the six girls rode up, all dressed in long warm woolen coats, they tied their horses to the hitching rail and walked over to the fire. Kit got Little Eli’s attention and nodded with a grin as she looked over toward the loading pens.

“Dad, we’re going to head over to the loading pens and check on the windmills to make sure the water troughs aren’t frozen along the way, they had ice in them yesterday,” Little Eli told his dad as they stood humped over in the cold wind.

“Check all the water troughs on your way down and chop the ice in the ones that’s frozen. Make note of any that needs to be looked at. We’ll get William and his brothers to check the ones that need it,” Eli told them.

“We brought our hatchets, we’ll break the ice in all of them,” Little Eli replied.

“Dad, we’re all going to ride with them,” Lee Yu told him as all the girls stood smiling at him.

Eli, Jon David, and Duncan watched as the twelve ran to mount up like this was a fun trip.

“Dad, what do you think that was all about?” Jon David asked as they watched them ride off.

“They’re up to something. Give them a little time and go check on them if you will.”

“I need to get back to the house anyway and send some telegraph messages, then check to see if we’ve had any responses to the letters we sent out to the churches about prospective wives for the hired hands,” he answered.

“You reckon that bunch is headin’ over to Iron Hammer’s?” Duncan asked.

“Could be, but my guess is they’ve got something else working. Even the girls were excited about getting away from here, and yesterday they couldn’t wait to get here.”

Jon David rode southwest toward the houses and barns when the girls and Young Bucks rode south down the pipeline toward the loading spur. Now and then, he could look across to the east and see them as they rode slowly up to a windmill and stopped.

When he was sure they couldn’t see him, he cut back toward the loading pens, riding faster.

“I see the little railroad buggy is still right where we parked it,” Isaac said as they turned their horses into the outer corral.

“We told you it was. We need to hurry and take a ride before the railroad men come get it,” Michi told them.

“Come on, but you better button your coats up good, it’s colder out here today and this thing will really run when we get it going,” Eli told them as they hurried around the corrals to the loading spur.

“UH OH!” Lilly Beth said loudly ... and they all looked around to see Jon David sitting on the ground between the corral and the loading spur, where the girls had been yesterday.

“Going for a ride?” he asked. He couldn’t help but grin when he spoke.

“Uh, we were just going to show the girls all about the little hand-car. It was here yesterday too when we came over,” Ezra answered.

“I was on the way to the house just now, and looked over this way to see it sitting here. I’ve never seen one up close and wanted to take a good look at it. When I saw all of you headed this way, I knew why you left in such a hurry.”

“You’re not going to tell on us, are you?” Lee Yu asked. She and the others just knew they were in trouble now.

“Not if you let me ride too!” he answered and stood up.

“REALLY?” Lee Yu said and they laughed as they ran to the hand-car.

“You’ve done this before, I take it?” Jon David said as all of them jumped onto the railroad buggy, except for Caleb, Ezra and Isaac, as Little Eli kicked the brake off.

“We took it for a ride yesterday. We went all the way up to the trestle, toward Vinita,” Little Eli told him.

“Can we all get on here?”

“YES! Come on Jon David, this is so much fun. We never knew you’d want to ride with us too,” Caleb told him.

“I’ve wanted to ride one of these since I saw the first one. Do we just sit with our feet hanging off like this?”

“Yeah, but you better sit with your back to the wind, ‘cause it’s going to be really cold when we get going,” Isaac told him.

Caleb, Ezra and Isaac leaned their shoulders into the hand-car to get it rolling, then hopped on.

“It sure rolls easy, is it hard to pump and get going fast?” Jon David asked.

“Once it gets rolling just a little, it’s easy to just go faster and faster. Once it gets going good, it will roll for a long ways without pumping the hand bars,” Micah told him as the six Bucks started pumping, three on either side.

They rolled out onto the loop, then right through the mainline switch, headed toward Vinita once more.

“Was the switch open yesterday when you rode, or did you have to open it?”

“It was open and we just took off when we saw that,” Micah said.

“It seems odd that the railroad crew would leave the main switch thrown over toward the loop. They must have been doing some repairs down toward the river and forgot to throw it back...

“Have you seen or heard a train since yesterday?” Jon David added.

“No, come to think of it,” Pike said as they all looked at each other for agreement.

“Let’s go fast, then we can slow down before we get up to the trestle,” Kia suggested.

“Jon David?” Eli looked to him for approval.

“Let her run, we need to get this ride over with and get off this mainline before a train does come through here. We’d have to really go fast to out run it,” he laughed and they were all laughing at the thought of that.

“WOOOeeee, it’s cold on this thing, but this is so much fun,” Lee Yu said as they huddled together.

“I see the trestle in the distance. When you stopped there yesterday, did you just start rolling it back the other way and pump the hand bars?” Jon David asked.

“Yes, that’s all we have to do. Stop, get it going the other way, and we’ll be headed back,” Caleb answered.

“Yesterday we wanted to go around that curve up there where the railroad goes through the woods, but we didn’t have time. Want to go up there now, Jon David?” Isaac asked and grinned at the others.

“Let’s go. We’re this close, and we may as well take a look. I sure hope we don’t meet a train way up here though.”

Jon David was standing in the middle of the little hand-car while the six Bucks pumped the hand bars faster and faster, the cold morning air whipping at their faces.

When they rounded the bend and came to the wooded area on both sides of the railroad right-of-way, they stopped pumping and let the little hand-car slowly coast to a stop as they all stood and looked out into the trees on both side. They saw another, longer trestle up ahead where the tracks crossed a wide area of flooded low lands in the woods.

“We better not go all the way up there. We need to get on back before we get caught,” Jon David suggested.

“I’d sure like to ride this thing when it’s warm. This is so much fun, even as cold as it is,” Kit said.

“Maybe we can get permission from the railroad to ride again. I’d hate to go to court for stealing a hand-car from the railroad,” Jon David said and they laughed at him.

When they had stopped rolling, Jon David jumped off with Eli, Ezra, and Caleb to start it rolling the other way. They rounded the curve as they slowly came out of the wooded area, and could see the short trestle ahead.

“The wind isn’t as bad going in this direction, let’s get it going good,” Isaac said.

“Yeah, let’s go fast,” Ruby said as everyone yelled in agreement, knowing this was the last of the ride.

“LISTEN!” Pike yelled.

“I heard that! That was a train whistle! Get this thing going, it’s coming up behind us!” Jon David yelled as he stepped over to help pump the hand bars.

When they had crossed the short trestle over the creek and came to the long straight stretch headed for the loading pens, they looked back to see the train coming around the bend out of the woods. Thick black smoke was puffing into the air and they could hear the roar of the big steam engine as it rumbled along the tracks behind them.

“Jon David?” Eli said loudly, as if asking what to do now.

“Get this thing going as fast as we can ... we can outrun them! When we get to the mainline switch on the loop, don’t slow down. Eli, Ezra, Caleb, Micah, all of you bail off when we get to the switch, you’ll need to throw that switch back to the mainline before that train gets to it!” Jon David told them as they rode down on the hand bars as hard and fast as they could.

The train whistle was screaming as it blasted steam into the cold air and the train bore down on them. They could hear the chug-chug, chug – chug-chug, chug of the locomotive’s steam engine, it was getting so close.

“Will we make it?” Lilly Beth yelled.

“We’re going to make it but it will be close. You Bucks be ready to jump off and throw that switch. Remember that counterweight will be heavy, so grab it and throw it back the other way! Get out of the way of the train too, it’s going to be right on your tails,” Jon David yelled as he looked back to see the locomotive bearing down on them.

“They see us now, listen to the engineer blow that whistle. I bet he’s trying to scare us,” Lilly Beth yelled.

“He’s already got me scared!” Michi yelled and they all laughed.

The Bucks bailed off just before the little hand-car flew past the mainline switch onto the sidetrack loop. They hit the ground running and grabbed the big counter weight on the switch to throw it over.

The riders on the hand-car were cheering as they saw them throw the switch and scramble away from the tracks just as the train rolled past with the whistle blowing and the railroad men waving and laughing.

They’d been going so fast, the hand-car rolled through the second switch and half way down the loading spur before they could get it stopped. The girls jumped off to help get it rolling back the other way. They were laughing so hard, it was all they could do to push against the little railroad buggy. When it was slowly rolling back toward the corrals, they hopped on, each of them piled up on the floor of the hand-car, laughing.

“This better not get out back at the house, Dad will skin my butt. Not only for letting this happen, but for riding with all of you,” Jon David said, wiping his eyes.

He was laughing as hard as they were.

“Jon David, we just love you so much. You’re just like us,” Lee Yu said as she leaped over on him where he sat on the ground next to his horse, to relieve his shaky legs.

“I love all of you too. This was the most fun I’ve had in years. I need to spend time with my younger brothers and sisters more often.”

As they rode back toward the house, they were still talking and laughing about being chased by the train. They took the saddles off their horses and turned them into the corral. As they worked, one would look at the other and the laughter would start again.

When they stepped upon the back porch, Jon David stopped them.

“Remember now, not a word to anyone!

“You girls stop that laughing or we’ll never keep this a secret!” Jon David frowned as he scolded them, then burst into laughter himself when the Bucks did. He and the rest of them jumped from the porch and ran back to the barn, where they tried once more to control their laughter.

Crow Ridge Drilling Rig #1 The Mary Connor Crow December 14, 1884

The drilling rig had been slowly but surely boring a hole down through the layer of shale rock for two weeks already and the crew had gotten good at setting a new section of drill stem and casing. They were down about eighty feet and still grinding away at the rock. About mid-day – Hat, the Derrickhand hurried up to where Willis stood talking to Albert. He had a double handful of slick, black mud mixed with the shavings from the shale.

Albert saw him running up the wide steps with his hands full of mud and knew before he reached him and Willis, what the man had in his hands.

“How much of this have we pumped out already, Hat?” Albert asked as the three men grinned at each other.

“We just started pumping it out, Boss. Is this what we been looking for?” He asked, already knowing it was.

“This is it! Willis, get on that whistle and sound the alarm. We need to get Eli over here so his daughter can get the camera set up. Before we set another section of drill stem, we’ll hit that pool of oil down there, and my guess would be that we’ll have enough pressure down there to blow it sky high!”

“Hat, you get your hands clean and get that well cap ready. Did you and your men get the smaller pipe rigged up like I showed you?”