The first cable tool oil field drilling rig was introduced in Texas in 1866, using a steel drilling cable with a bit suspended at the end that was dropped into a hole to break up the ground, while a bail removed the broken pieces. This method allowed deeper penetration of the earth, an important need in the Southwest region of the United States, and it helped bring about some of the first important oil wells of the Permian Basin. At this antique oil field site in 1936, local rancher G.R. Davis, owner of Chimney Creek Ranch since 1920, leased part of his acreage to Baker and Pardue Oil Company of Breckenridge, Texas. Numerous cable tool well locations were drilled to about 1,600 feet into the Bluff Creek Sand, and each well produced between 5 and 25 barrels of oil per day, when oil sold for less than $3.00 per barrel. At the center of the field stood a Central Power Unit with five pump jacks, called Oklahoma jacks, and a cable tool drilling rig around it. The unit was first powered by its own production of natural gas and used two large metal wheels and belts to create a back-and-forth motion, which connected to pulling rods extending as far as a quarter of a mile to each jack and produced the familiar up-and-down pumping motion known as walking beams. Pressure from the jacks drew oil to the surface and let it flow to a nearby tank battery. The field operated until the early 1950s, when the Central Power Unit was then powered by electricity. After Howard Hughes, Sr., patented the three-cone rotary drill bit in 1934, the cable tool drilling era slowly phased out, though many of these rigs remained scattered across the West Texas countryside as reminders of the early Texas oil industry.