There’s nothing like the ferocity of a 4-foot-tall person whose face is painted like a lion to give you a start.

Then you turn around and a snow cone has been dumped on your pants by a 3-foot young fellow frightened by the Sinclair dinosaur wobbling through the crowd at the oil field cook-off.

The temperature has now hit 106 degrees and you might be as wobbly as that big green dinosaur but in the band shell by the food court the music rises and feet become happy, and spirits lifted. Such was the evening at the downtown 100-year celebration of the birth of the oil and gas industry in Artesia and New Mexico. It was the birth of the famous Illinois #3 gusher.

After almost a year of planning, the weekend seemed to flow, well, OK, as smoothly as oil from the well, through the pipeline, and to the refinery. Boom.

During that year, a group of folks from the Artesia Chamber, Main Street, and other volunteers met weekly to discuss the voluminous details of the weekend. They brought everything together as smooth as butter.

Friday night, more than 400 people gathered for a dinner at the Artesia Country Club to first and foremost celebrate the families responsible for Illinois #3 and subsequent successful oil and gas exploration here. Also recognized were the thousands of men and women who have worked in this industry and who have helped make Artesia both prosperous and beautiful.

The group heard from author Alex Epstein, perhaps fossil fuels most ardent and highly respected advocate, and Hanson Yates, son of Peyton Yates who runs Santo Industries, an Artesia native, who recounted the past, present, and future state of oil and gas here. Yates’ presentation was marked with exquisite detail of operations here and shared several doses of nicely timed humor.

We at the Artesia Daily Press, take a bow as well. We believe our glossy magazine “100 Years, Celebrating A Century of the Oil and Gas Industry in Artesia and Eddy County,” will serve over the years as one of the most authoritative histories of what occurred 100 years ago and presages the bright history ahead of us.