The Illinois State #3 was the first commercial oil well drilled in Southeast New Mexico and the first on state-owned lands in New Mexico. The oil sand, or "pay," was reached on April 9, 1924. In late April or May, the well unloaded and a famous photograph was taken. Later, in June 1924, Tex Thornton set off downhole nitroglycerin explosions to improve the well's performance. Flynn, Welch and Yates operated the original well. Tom Flynn and Van Welch, partners in Illinois Producers, had brought a cable tool rig and crew to New Mexico in search of oil. After several failures, they were preparing to leave when Martin Yates persuaded them to stay and try again on state leases he had obtained. The #1 well was dry, and the #2 found a large but then unwanted volume of natural gas, so the #3 had to succeed, and at 1,947 feet, it did. Geologist V. H. McNutt, after the #1 and #2 failures, would indicate only a general direction for the #3 site. Martin Yates then asked his wife, Mary, to choose the location, and she did. Since 1924, Southeast New Mexico has produced approximately 3.9 billion barrels of oil and 20.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from tens of thousands of wells, and New Mexico's permanent fund, fed by oil and gas royalties along with San Juan basin gas in Northwest New Mexico, has grown to over $5 billion.