Interest was drawn to West Texas Permian basin by discovery of oil in the Bend formation at Ranger in October, 1917.

Stratigraphy of the area as understood by geologists of that day was discussed in Bulletin No. 44 of the University of Texas.

In an unpublished opinion, J. A. Udden thought that the Marathon folding would have a northeast expression in Reagan, Glasscock, Sterling, and Mitchell counties.

The discovery well of the Westbrook pool in Mitchell County was completed at approximately 2,500 feet in the early part of 1921 in a limestone pay of lower Double Mountain age.

The Big Lake pool was discovered by the Texon Oil and Gas Company's University No. 1, which found 50 bbls. of oil in the Big Lake limestone (lower Double Mountain) from a depth of 3,600 feet.

Subsequent wells showed the east side of the basin to be a rather featureless monocline, very much as it appears today.

In 1925 little was known about the central part of the West Texas Permian basin. There was some meager evidence of the existence of the West Texas structural platform as follows: the northwest-southeast alignment of the Cretaceous escarpment extending from King Mountain in Upton County northwestward across to Ector County; rolled Edwards fossils in caliche hills of western Winkler County; possible Triassic inliers in Crane and Ector counties; shallow salt in northwestern Crane County; Big Lake limestone

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found in Cordona Lake Company's (Texas Development) Cowden No. 1 in southwestern Crane County at 112 feet, as compared with the Wentz Oil Company's Bryan No. 1 central Midland County, which found Big Lake limestone at 1,540 feet, indicating a fall on the Big Lake limestone in a northeastern direction of 1,700 feet in approximately 40 miles.

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