What the Hell Is LandmanLife?

LandmanLife is what happens when a young landman spends too many years driving county roads, digging through deed records, drinking in unfamiliar towns, and realizing that the polished version of the oil business leaves out all the interesting parts.

It began anonymously, back when saying what you actually thought about brokers, clients, landowners, industry politics, and the strange little world of land work felt like a good way to end a career. For years, nobody knew who was behind it. That was part of the fun—and, frankly, part of the survival plan.

Over time, the secret came out. The industry changed. I changed. LandmanLife grew from an anonymous outlet into a collection of stories, arguments, friendships, events, questionable merchandise, and one of the strangest communities in the oil patch.

The tone has evolved, but the purpose has not: tell the truth about the land business as it is actually lived.

That means you will find practical advice next to profanity. Thoughtful reflections next to petty grievances. Stories about mentors, mistakes, courthouse characters, oil busts, title problems, middle managers, good friends, bad clients, and the decisions that made perfect sense after four beers.

Some of it is useful. Some of it is funny. Some of it has aged better than the people involved.

Who Writes This

My name is Gates Mueller.

I started as an independent landman in 2010, up in Pennsylvania working the Marcellus. Mr. Marcellus, as we all put it. I came back to Texas in 2011, spent a while in Gonzales County, then a good long stretch in DeWitt County. A few of the stories in the archive come from that period, and some of the names got changed for good reason.

When the DeWitt work wrapped up I went to Buckaroo Fuel Company, where J. Martin taught me almost everything I know about being a landman. After that I ran prospects cradle to grave all over the state of Texas. Most of it by myself, which is how a man ends up with a blog.

LandmanLife was the outlet. I figured I was screaming into the void.

Then one night in Hallettsville, around ten o'clock, I listened to a younger landman tell one of my stories as his own. That is when I found out people were reading.

I spent the next five years or so staying under the radar. Friends knew who was behind the mask. Most people did not. I sold some koozies and stickers in that stretch, then ramped the store up properly in 2020. By then I had gotten far enough along that I was not afraid of losing a job over something I posted on the internet ten years earlier, and once you are shipping more than a handful of stickers, staying anonymous gets difficult anyway.

So I took the mask off.

If You Are New to the Land Business

Start with the guides. They explain what landmen actually do, how independent land work operates, and why the job cannot be reduced to a LinkedIn title or a clean corporate job description.

Then read the war stories. That is where the education becomes more accurate.

Recommended starting points

• What Is a Landman?
• What Does a Landman Actually Do?
• Going Independent
• The Challenges of Becoming an Independent Landman
• On the Road to Becoming an Independent Landman
• The Circle of Landman Life: How Landmen Are Made

If You Have Been Doing This for Twenty Years

You will recognize some of the people even when the names are changed. You have probably worked for one of the brokers being described, sat beside one of these characters in a deed room, or made a worse mistake than the one in the story.

Start with the rants, the reflections, and the older pieces from the archive. Then send in the story you have been telling at happy hours for fifteen years.

Recommended starting points

• The Value of Geriatric Landmen
• How Landmen Have Changed
• Define “Good Landman”
• The war stories
• The Landman Log

If You Came Here from #EFT

You already know this was never just a website.

The friendships, meetups, Friday Night Roll Calls, NAPE parties, running jokes, arguments, fundraisers, and occasional public disasters became more important than the posts themselves. LandmanLife helped give that community a place to gather, but the community is what gave LandmanLife a reason to continue.

Start with #EFT and the community, then check the Events page to see where everyone is making poor scheduling decisions next.

If You Are Looking for the Company

LandmanLife is connected to my life and career, but it is not a corporate blog. Chris Yonker and I founded MYR Land Services in 2022 after spending years learning what we liked—and what we absolutely hated—about the traditional land brokerage model.

MYR does serious land work. LandmanLife documents the world around it with considerably less supervision.

The Ground Rules

LandmanLife is independent. The opinions are mine unless an article says otherwise. Stories may be edited to protect people who deserve protection, and occasionally people who probably do not. Reader submissions will never be published as anonymous without a conversation about what anonymity actually requires.

This is not legal advice, title advice, financial advice, or a substitute for calling somebody older and smarter than you.

Pick Your Direction

• I want to learn: Go to Guides
• I want a good story: Go to Stories
• I want an argument: Go to Rants
• I want the whole history: Go to the Archive
• I want to waste company time: Go to Drillbit
• I have a story of my own: Go to Send a Dispatch

There is no destination here. That is why it is called the Roadtrip to Nowhere.