Luling still wears its 1922 oil story in plain sight

On August 9, 1922, Edgar B. Davis's discovery well struck oil near Luling. The Railroad Commission's field record dates the Luling-Branyon field to August 1922, and the city remembers how the quiet rail and farming town quickly filled with drilling crews.

The boom did not erase Luling's farm roots. Davis established the Luling Foundation in 1927 to teach better agricultural practices, and its demonstration farm still operates east of town.

The nicest part of this story is that it is not locked in a display case. Working pump jacks around Luling have been painted as characters, so the machinery that changed the town also became its most peculiar public art.