The Pure Oil Company conducted seismograph surveys in Van Zandt County in 1927 and that summer leased about 17,000 acres in the Van area for exploration. Core drilling began in January 1929, and the first derrick was erected in a cotton patch on the farm of W. T. Jarman (1856-1928). The flurry of activity in the area brought many curious onlookers. Families brought picnic lunches and spent entire days watching the drilling crews. On October 13 thousands of people came and waited all day, leaving that evening disappointed that nothing had happened. Early on the morning of October 14 the Number One well quietly came in, launching the village of Van into a boomtown overnight. In 1929 Van was a small farming community, with a general store and a two-room school. Suddenly stores, hotels, and dance halls sprung up throughout the town, and new schools and roads were built to serve the increased population. The Jarman Number One Well was the first of 591 wells in the Van field. In the first twenty years over 200 million barrels of oil were produced, and in December 1985 the field yielded its 500 millionth barrel of oil. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986