Rudolph the red-nosed pumping unit. (original) (raw)

If you drive through Lufkin during the holidays, be sure to take notice of one of East Texas� most unusual Christmas decorations.

For decades, �Rudolph the Red Nosed Pumping Unit,� the creation of Lufkin Industries, Inc., the inventor of the balance-type oilfield pumping unit, has helped East Texas celebrate the season.

Rudolph, named for the reindeer made famous by the Gene Autry song, is a fully-operational pumping unit standing about 45 feet high.

For about four days before Thanksgiving, an electrician installs 1,000 seven-watt light on a selected unit. Another work crew spends another two and a half days putting Rudolph together at his holiday home on the parking lot of Lufkin Mall beside Loop 287 and U.S. 59.

Rudolph is actually a fully-operational Lufkin Mark 640 oilfield pump painted red for the season. At his holiday home, he is pulling a 38-foot dump trailer, also made by Lufkin Industries, carrying Santa Claus and a pile of Christmas gifts.

Rudolph, naturally, sports lighted antlers and a red nose.

On each Saturday before Thanksgiving, East Texans gather by the thousands at the mall, Santa Claus arrives, a local band and choir fills the air with Christmas music, and cookies and milk are passed out to the children on hand.

Lufkin Industries selects a person or group each year to be the official lighter of Rudolph. The crowd shouts out a countdown, a button is pushed, and Rudolph comes to life.