In the first instance of what came to be known as the “Hunt luck,” that first well, the Hunt-Pickering No. 1, struck oil, a decent amount, before petering out several weeks later. Rather than buy a thirty-five-hundred-dollar pump jack to restart it, they sold the well to another independent, who promptly went out of business before paying. It was a dispiriting experience, but as Hunt noted years later, “it served the purpose of getting me started in the oil business.
