Penwell was named after a well drilled in 1929 by independent oilman Robert R. Penn. The discovery of the Penwell-Jordan oil field occurred when the R. R. Penn Kloh-Rumsey No. 1, came in on October 7, 1929. J. H. Penn, who drilled that well was a well-known oilman in west Texas. The townsite was officially laid out on November 8, 1929, and a post office was established there on June 30, 1930. This unincorporated community in Ector County, Texas is located near Interstate 20, approximately sixteen miles southwest of Odessa. It is also part of the Odessa Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was also known as "The Crossroads of the oil patch" when it became a central distributing and shipping point for numerous fields in several Permian Basin counties. In the 1980s the nearby Odessa Raceway Park was operating from May through October. Monahans State Park is just outside of town. The population was 74 in 2000. Penwell is also the home of West Texas' only 1/4 mile drag strip.
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