Discreet Biohazard Cleanup Near West Electra Electra, TX

Electra is a city in northwestern Wichita County, Texas, about 15 miles northwest of Wichita Falls on U.S. Highway 287, and part of the Wichita Falls metropolitan area.

Daniel Waggoner began ranching in the area in 1852, and the vast Waggoner Ranch grew up around the future townsite.

In 1902 residents selected the name Electra in honor of Electra Waggoner, daughter of cattle baron W. T. Waggoner.

Ironically, W. T. Waggoner had repeatedly drilled around town looking for water and kept fouling his wells with crude oil instead.

On April 1, 1911, the Clayco No. 1 well blew in a mile north of Electra — a strike so sudden that many residents first took the news for an April Fool's joke.

The Electra oilfield produced approximately ten million barrels of oil between 1911 and the mid-1920s, with peak production of more than eight million barrels in 1913 alone.

The boom swelled Electra from about 1,000 people in 1910 to roughly 5,000 within months of the gusher, and by 1936 the town counted 6,712 residents and 170 businesses.

The State of Texas officially designated Electra the Pump Jack Capital of Texas in 2001, and the city has celebrated an annual Pump Jack Festival since 2002.

Oil wealth helped build Electra's community theater in 1920 and its high school in 1923; the historic Grand Theatre has since been refurbished and operates today.

The Electra Independent School District was created in 1911, the same year as the oil strike.