I think we're looking across the Red River into Oklahoma. That's a gas well blowing out that is making water, or getting steam poured to it. There must be a sense of urgency here as just right of the rig in the foreground, a crater has formed on the banks of the river and its boiling water, most certainly an indication the well was broached whatever casing was in the hole. Not good, even back then.
A hundred years later Mother Earth is getting pooped out; all the magnificent bottom hole pressure She use to have at shallow depths, pressure that would produce 25,000 BOPD wells at 3,000 feet, is gone now. Depleted. Deeper depths and over-pressured zones here and there will still surprise you, sure, but gone are the days of this sort of stuff, of gushers and big fires hundreds of feet in the air at depths of less than 10-12,000 feet.
Now we're down to squeezing blood out a turnip with induced frac energy...the fake stuff. We've gone from the good 'ol days of one well making 300:1 returns on initial investment to 1.30: 1 ROI's at $9MM a pop, like they were manufactured on an assembly like in Detroit.