The term wildcatter is seldom heard anymore, seldom used. It has (or had) a romantic ring to it once-upon-a-time. Probably, today, it is better left among its own: That ownership of the term is wherever the spirit of men like Michael Halbouty or Glen McCarthy (both of Texas), or The Hughes brothers, Dan and Dudley (Texas and Mississippi), or perhaps the granddaddy and most colorful of all wildcatters, Columbus (Dad) Joiner, an old Alabama country boy who at the ripe old age of 70 promoted and sold (and oversold) The East Texas Field, the largest in the world at the time.
