Bolding Derrick

The derrick, located at the corner of Longview Street and Highway 42, is dedicated by the Lloyd Bolding family to the City of Kilgore and all their East Texas friends that first welcomed the family to Kilgore in June 1961.

It is also dedicated to the East Texas Oil Industry, G.W. Boyd and B.V. Fox and all the employees of Acid Engineering, Inc., Dyna-Test, Inc. and Ceco Equipment, Inc.

Lloyd Bolding’s first recollection of the oil industry is at age six, sitting with his father on the floor of a drilling rig, watching a well being drilled about 200 yards from their house, south of Wewoka, Oklahoma. It was exciting to see oil flowing from the well, he says, because all the adults seemed excited. He grew up with wells on every side of his home, listening to the gas engines as he awoke and listening to them when he went to sleep. Lloyd learned not to hear the engines but house guests never did. The only time they heard any noise was when the engines quit pumping. Surrounded by oil wells and oil people, it was only natural to envision that one day Lloyd would enter the oil business.

Born in 1934, Lloyd and his family lived on Indian land and all their neighbors were Seminole Indians. He started school at New Model, Oklahoma, and went through the eighth grade before graduating in 1952 from high school at Wewoka, Oklahoma headquarters for the Seminole Nation. His education was delayed two years while serving in the Army and was pushed back further with a year of roughnecking offshore in Louisiana. Army and roughneck pay convinced Lloyd that he had to pursue further education, graduating in 1961 from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering.

His first job assignment was with Dowell in Kilgore, and later he worked for Pure Oil Company in Van. He transferred to Olney. Illinois, with Pure Oil (purchased later by Union Oil of California) and remained there until 1966 when he found enough nerve and financial support to start his own oil well stimulation company.

Lloyd, Evelyn and their young son Bo moved to Seminole, Oklahoma, and lived with Evelyn’s parents while Lloyd, G.W. Boyd and various welders fabricated Acid Engineering’s first pump truck. In June, 1966, the Boldings moved back to Kilgore, this time with their own bright new blue and white pump truck. He wanted nothing more than to work that truck and get it paid for. In 1967, he added a second truck and a second son, Jeff. Thinking he’d never again leave Kilgore. Lloyd saw a business opportunity in 1970 in West Texas and moved to Denver City, promising Evelyn they would only be there a few months. Five years later, Evelyn moved back to Kilgore and of course, Lloyd followed her.

Acid Engineering was Lloyd Bolding’s dream for 27 years, through the challenging late `60s and early `70s to the boom years of the early ‘80s to the bust of 1985. With support of family and “the best team of employees in the industry,” Acid Engineering survived the challenge. “I feel truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in an industry that I truly love,” he says.

The derrick was provided by Texaco. Inc. and the site provided by the Bolding family.