Christmas displays – sure, we’ve all seen big, flashy ones, and, sure, we’ve all shaken our heads, laughed (or experienced a combination of those reactions) at some of ‘em.
There are some that are big and bold, however; fitting of their surroundings, and able to eke out smiles from a whole town. For 58 consecutive years, as of this coming December, the city of Lufkin has played host to a 45-foot tall oil pumping unit festooned as jolly Saint Nick’s red-nosed sleigh-guiding most famous reindeer of all.
Rudolph the Red-Nose Pumping Unit, a Mark 640 pumpjack, is synonymous with Christmastime in Lufkin, Texas, and a reminder of the legacy of industry in the town.
The city, in partnership with Lufkin Industries, created an annual Christmas in the Pines celebration, downtown, where the lighting of Rudolph is the linchpin factor of the event, which has grown through the years to include craft and food vendors, a ceremony featuring a Boy Scout troop reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance” and an art contest.
According to information from Lufkin Industries, the company responsible for both Rudolph and the pumpjack’s creation, the tradition began as we know it in 1966, when employees carefully tossed a few Christmas lights on a pumping unit onsite at the Lufkin Industries facility in Lufkin. The late Lufkinite and historian Bob Bowman wrote that even before the city began celebrating Rudolph with the official lighting in 1966, it had been a tradition at the plant going back to 1953, to decorate a small pumping unit with a red light bulb and a ribbon.
A Lufkin Industries employee, Guy Croom, was the first to do it, having been inspired by Gene Autry’s hit song chronicling Rudolph’s turn at guiding Santa’s sleigh.
From those beginnings, when that group of Lufkin employees adorned the pumper with a small red nose and some lights and placed it outside the machine shop for the community to enjoy, it became a tradition, much beloved by Lufkinites and visitors alike.
As the sands passed through the hourglass, the displays on the pumper became more elaborate, and in 2024, it takes four to five days to install all of the lights, which number in excess of 4,000, on the unit. When it is fully extended, it stands its full 45 feet, and a 38-foot dump trailer stationed to the rear of Rudolph becomes Santa’s sleigh.
A LUFKIN (formerly Lufkin Industries) representative said it takes three days to move Rudolph downtown to set him up, and then another three days, at the end of the holiday season, to disassemble and put him into storage, in wait for the next year’s festivities.
Through the years, the location of Rudolph migrated from the original on-site placement, visible to the community from Raguet and Angelina streets, to the front of Lufkin Mall, where it was a staple for many years. It was also stationed, for a brief time, at the corner of Pershing and Feagin.
There have even been different iterations of Rudolph through the years, including the Mark II pumper, which was invented by Joe Byrd, a Lufkinite who moved from Colorado to work at Lufkin Industries. Byrd invented that pumping unit in 1956, and the tallest model was 90 feet.
For many Lufkinites, Rudolph is more than a welcome signal of Christmas cheer, but a bittersweet reminder of the industry that put the town on the map. The company that bore the attraction, as well as the patents and manufacture for the pumpers to create it, once employed thousands of people. Founded in 1902, and then known as Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company, as a machine shop, the oil and gas industry made the company a powerhouse and kept Lufkin’s economy afloat.
An acquisition by General Electric in 2013, amid falling oil prices, then a merger with Baker Hughes in 2017, and a subsequent rebranding to LUFKIN, have left the once large employer a shell of its former self, with just 36 employees, and with it, a refocus within the city’s economy to smaller companies and a focus on arts tourism.
Rudolph, in the perennial children’s tale penned by Robert May, represents the American dream for children; that everyone is special and should be recognized for their unique talents and abilities. The City of Lufkin, in a sense, is like the sleigh-guiding fawn famously ridiculed for his red nose. Despite the gutting of the city’s major employer, it remains a viable center in East Texas of economic viability and cultural relevance.Rudolph, the 45-foot pumpjack, with his nose so bright, is a window to traditions and a welcome reminder, to some, of that past, but also a beacon to future prosperity, within the city’s boundaries, as well as throughout the deep Pineywoods region.
Rudolph the Red-Nose Pumping Unit will be unveiled for the 58th year on Friday, Dec. 5, at 5:30 p.m. The location is 113 South First Street in downtown Lufkin. You can put it in your GPS, or Google Map the location, but it’ll be hard to miss.
