All that changed, however, when the Midwest Refining Company (now Amoco) began drilling for oil near Hobbs on October 12, 1927. Soon the plains area was the stage for one of the great oil booms of the West. November 8, 1928, marked the No. 1 well’s depth of 4,220 feet producing 700 barrels of oil per day.
People arrived in Model T’s, airplanes, trucks and on foot. The population explosion brought on by the oil discovery resulted in Hobbs, New Hobbs and All Hobbs. Eventually these were all consolidated into one city, Hobbs. Only a few years later, during the depression years of the 1930s, the population began to diminish.
That did not last long, though, as renewed interest in drilling in 1934 led the city to the prosperity it has today. Hobbs, part of the Llano Estacado ("Staked Plains") and the Permian Basin, is located on U. S. Highway 62/180 in the southeastern corner of New Mexico about three miles from the Texas border. At an average elevation of 3,615 feet, the 32,000 people who live there enjoy the mild, dry climate, abundant sun and low humidity.
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