Our November meeting was a very important meeting in that nine students from our surrounding universities received Scholarship awards to help with the expense of their Geoscience Education. Congratulations to all the students who received Scholarships supporting their hard work and efforts.

This month we have two milestone announcements: The first being that after several years and approximately one quarter of a million dollars the CCGS history movie “Oilmen: Tales from the South Texas Oil Patch” has been essentially completed in a 59 minute Broadcast Version and in a 70 minute Educational Version. On Monday November 12, 2012 the History Committee and a quorum of the CCGS Board of Directors met with Mr. Don Dunlap of KEDT and South Texas Public Broadcasting System, Inc. to execute a TV Broadcast and DVD use agreement. The CCGS Historical Documentary Film will be aired for the 1st time on KEDT public television in Corpus Christi, Texas in the month of December 2012 six times per the following schedule:

“Oilmen : Tales from the South Texas Oil Patch” is currently being review by the other 12 PBS TV stations in the state of Texas for airing and has the potential to reach 95% of our population. Congratulations to the CCGS History Committee; with special thanks to Ray Govett and Sebastian Wiedmann and Frank Van Huegten of Quadrant Productions for getting us to the final product. The dream of having an educational tool to reach the public and share the importance of the History of Oil and Gas is becoming a reality. We are preparing for a Commemorative Fund Raiser Social Showing in the latter part of January 2013. Watch for further announcements.

In 1959 a very special event happened in my life that would change my direction and focus for the rest of my life. That event was the release of the movie “Journey to the Center of the Earth” starring James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl, and based on Jules Verne’s 1864 Novel. I lived in Lovington, New Mexico, and the Company my Dad was working for, Amerada, was shooting Seismic over the famed Abo Reef of Southeastern New Mexico. Even before the movie was released we knew that it was being shot and partly being filmed in one of the largest most beautiful Cavern Systems not far from where we lived perched in the great El Capitan Reef: Carlsbad Caverns. I worked hard to earn that quarter to gain entrance to the debut of the movie in my small New Mexico town. I wanted to go to the Center of the Earth with these people and that I did. As far as I was concerned I made it to the Center of the Earth with a Geologic Scottish Exploration Team that included three adventurous men and one very adventurous woman. What an adventure that was, and my door to exploration was open forever just because of that movie. I did not care that the movie was far from being geologically factually correct but what I did care about was that it took me on a fantastic journey of exploration with mind boggling sights and it gave me a new language of exciting geologic terms, even if I was only 8 years old and in the 3rd Grade. From that point on I wanted to know everything about Geology. Speleology ( Cave Exploration) became my Geologic Hobby and I have explored a multitude of Cavern Systems from the karst regions of Southeastern New Mexico to Oklahoma to the Kentucky- Tennessee area during the course of my Geologic Life. Inner Space is a wonderous geologic adventure. I became a Geologist at the age of 8. We moved on to shoot more seismic in the Pecos, Texas area, and a Geologist, Tommy Southgate, would come from Tulsa to “QC” the data and would stay at my house and we would go to Alpine Texas on the weekends to look for Rocks. That did it, I was hooked forever! The beauty and lure of Geology was before me and it all started with new ideas from a movie and the visit of a real Geologist willing to share his world with me! Dare to Explore your world and share it with those around you! Embrace Geology by going on your Journey to the Center of the Earth today.

Scotland is the Birthplace of Geology and at the start of the movie and end of the movie all the Scottish Geology Students sang this song: I loved it and still do:

The second milestone announcement concerns the late Owen Hopkins who was one of those Geologists that shared his world! Owen Hopkins did so much to share the wonders of Geology with as many students as he could possibly reach. The Corpus Christi Northwest Branch Library has been renamed after Geologist Owen R. Hopkins.This fantastic honor was bestowed on October 30, 2012, and CCGS o!ers congratulations to the Owen R. Hopkins family. Owen Hopkins EMBRACED GEOLOGY; our community thanks you!

EMBRACED GEOLOGY!

The CCGS Board of Directors has recently approved to fund the purchase of 10 Cameras with 12 GB memory cards to be used in conjunction with petrographic microscopes for Dr. Tom McGehee at Texas A&M University at Kingsville.

Our Guest speaker for December at our noon luncheon meeting at the Town Club will be Chuck Segrest, and his topic for his presentation is “Reservoir Characterization by Rock/Log Modeling”. Please be there to welcome our speaker and listen to his presentation on the integration of Rocks with Logs! This information could help you daily in formulating exploration models.

EMBRACE GEOLOGY!

Dennis A. Taylor
CCGS President, 2012-13