The Powell Oil Field, one of the world's most noted petroleum fields, was discovered in 1905 and developed in three periods. Early shallow wells drilled by Claude Witherspoon in the Nacatoch sand at depths of 800 to 1,000 feet still produce. Its second and greatest era followed three difficult years of drilling, when on Sunday, Jan. 7, 1923, the W. H. Warren-R. K. Blackshear J. H. Burke No. 1, drilled to 2,933 feet in the Woodbine sand, came in as a gusher and set off a feverish drilling boom before spacing and proration regulations existed. Derricks rose by the dozens, and on May 8, 1923, the J. K. Hughes-W. J. McKie No. 1, another major gusher, blackened the area with oil that soon ignited and caused 15 deaths. This 8,000-barrel-a-day well defined the main pool. By fall, the six-square-mile field was producing more than Pennsylvania and nine other oil states combined, and on Nov. 23, 1923, it reached a peak day of 354,893 barrels. Population surged as corn and cotton patches gave way to the townsites of Oil City, Tuckertown, and Wildcat. Powell produced more than 30 million barrels in 1923 and more than 40 million in 1924, then declined, with its last million-barrel year in 1931. Waterflooding began a third period of production in 1964.