Bob's Oil Well

Matador, Texas, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Bob's Oil Well was a roadside service station and tourist stop in Matador, Texas, where Luther Bedford 'Bob' Robertson put an oil derrick over his station to attract trade. A Texas Historical Commission marker, unveiled in the mid-2000s, tells its story.

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Bob's Oil Well

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Site-level location · 34.0120° N, 100.8282° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

An 84-foot lit steel oil derrick towered over a roadside service station in Matador, Texas, a landmark for travellers on US 70. According to the Texas Historical Commission marker, Luther Bedford 'Bob' Robertson, a veteran of the First World War who came to Matador in the 1920s, opened a service station in 1932. To promote it he built a wooden derrick over the station, and in 1939 replaced it with a steel one, 84 feet high and lit. The marker says Robertson patented his design.

He was a keen promoter. He paid long-distance truckers to put up signs across the country giving the mileage to Bob's Oil Well in Matador. A cage of live rattlesnakes grew into a zoo that, the marker says, held lions, monkeys, coyotes and a white buffalo. The business expanded to a grocery, café and garage. Preservation Texas adds that the diner was built of stone and petrified wood.

Robertson died in 1947, and two weeks later, the marker says, high wind toppled the steel derrick. His widow restored it two years later with even larger lights. The business did not last, and it closed in the 1950s.

Preservation Texas named the site to its Most Endangered Places List in 2004. Preservation Texas's page, written around the time the marker was unveiled, said the stone-and-petrified-wood diner, station and derrick remained, that the owners' protection crew had hired help to repair the exterior, and that interior work and a planned visitor centre awaited funding. A November 2025 travel article said the rebuilt derrick still stands, and describes the old station as shuttered since the 1950s. The site is at the junction of US 70 and Texas 70; the marker stands at the corner of Bailey Avenue and Pipken Street.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Texas Historical Commission marker (unveiled in the mid-2000s) at the corner of Bailey Avenue and Pipken Street. Preservation Texas said exterior repairs were planned and interior work depended on further funding. The station has been closed since the 1950s, and no visiting hours are listed; view it from the road.

ACCESS

Matador, Texas, at the junction of US 70 and Texas 70. The station is closed. The Texas Historical Commission marker stands near the corner of Bailey Avenue and Pipken Street.

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