Willie Leova Lake, was an 'oil enthusiast' and persuaded the company to drill a well. Oil India Ltd's web site contains no history of the Assam Oil Company's origins but an earlier incarnation claimed that the "decision to drill was taken by the Directors of the AR&T Co. in 1888 under the direction of Mr. W L Lake, an employee of the company and an oil enthusiast". Once the project had been approved, Lake assembled equipment, boilers, and local labour, and engaged elephants to haul the machinery to the site. The first well was started in September 1889, but an encouraging first strike at turned out to be a small pocket, and drilling recommenced. This continued until November 1890 when the well was completed at a total depth of , and it was during this extended period of drilling that Assam Oil Company's magazine adverts placed the legend of Lake exhorting one or more of his labourers to "Dig, boy!" Digboi as an oil town It is said that the town gets its name from the phrase "dig-boy-dig," which is what the English and Canadian miners told the labourers as they dug for crude oil. It is said that Canadians first noticed oil on the feet of elephants. That's how oil was discovered here. The town's history begins in 1867 when a small group of men from the Assam Railway and Trading Co. found their elephants' legs soaked in black mud, that smelled somewhat like oil. The men began exploring more, and in 1889, the English started a small oil installation. India (and Asia) obtained its first refinery in Digboi in the year 1901. Assam Oil Company was formed in 1899 to look after the running of the oil business in this area. The Digboi oil field produced close to of crude oil at its peak, which was during World War II. The field was pushed to produce the maximum amount of oil with little regard to reservoir management; as a result, production started to drop almost immediately after the war. The current production from the Digboi fields is about . Over 1,000 wells have been drilled at Digboi – the first well in 1889 had stuck oil at . In 1989, the Department of Posts, India came out with a stamp commemorating 100 years of the Digboi fields. Today, though the crude production is not high, Digboi has the