We went to the Permian Basin Oil Museum here in Midland. The Permian Basin is the name of the underground area where oil was first discovered in Texas. Its a huge deposit and they are still drilling new wells as they go for even deeper oil. There is a room of honor in the museum that has portraits of everyone that was noteworthy in the oil business all the way back to the beginning. You could just smell the money in that room. The museum has the whole history of oil exploration, all the drilling equipment old and new. The picture with the blue giant fireplug looking thing actually is a piece of equipment that is put in the oil well to prevent blowouts. The other picture is a giant drill bit they use to drill down -- sometimes 20,000 feet - to find oil. It was impressive that one in three wells dug actually produce oil. They obviously know a lot before they start drilling about the potential because it can cost close to a million dollars to drill a well 20,000 feet.
The museum also had a great collection of artwork that tells the story of the American West and is very historically accurate. It includes many paintings dealing with oil drilling back in the beginning. They also have antique oil equipment on display inside and the really large stuff set up outside. I never thought oil drilling could be so interesting but the museum really does a great job of making it easy to understand.
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