“I thought he was crazy. I didn't think we could afford it,” said Jody Long, talking about the decision to buy property west of Nevada.

Her husband, Jim, liked the farm for the lake and the old pecan grove, so he bought it. Jody soon changed her mind.

“I've been in a frenzy ever since,” she said.

Just over the fence where they're going to build a dream home is an energy field of dreams: an oilfield.

“Do you feel like Jed Clampett?” a reporter wondered.

“There are so many Missourians with guns, you would have thought we would've found the bubbling crude years ago,” said Jim Long.

Under the Longs’ farm -- their "little piece of Vernon County" -- are about one million barrels. It’s hot property that's made the courthouse in Nevada a hot spot.

“Since December, we've had 135 oil and gas leases filed,” said Recorder of Deeds Doug Shupe.

Shupe says his office photocopier wore out because of researchers checking on who had oil and mineral rights in the area.

Wildcatters and brand names like Exxon and Shell have been trying to get to Vernon County’s oil since the 1920s. In 2003, KY3 News interviewed Barth Hinkle, a retired land agent who's seen Big Oil come and go as gas prices rose and fell.

“It was a promoter’s paradise, and there were so many holes in the ground it looked like Swiss cheese out there,” said Hinkle.

Missouri's oil is heavy like molasses. It’s only 200 feet under ground – close to the surface compared to most oil -- but trapped in sandstone.

A Canadian company is gearing up for production, and believes it can do a better job of steaming it out under high pressure through a series of wells. Mega West Energy predicts it can keep drilling and pumping as long as the gasoline price stays above $2 a gallon.

“It’s viable at $50 a barrel,” said Long.

Long expects he’ll produce 100,000 barrels over the next two years. There are reports and estimates, however, that Vernon County may have up to one billion barrels of oil in the area along the Missouri-Kansas border.

“We've not even taken a thimble full yet,” said Long.

Jody Long is having trouble containing her excitement over what's going on in her own backyard.

“I’m trying to stay calm; I was ecstatic,” she said.

Mega West says, when its wells start pumping, several fulltime on-site jobs and new jobs in town will be created. The oil will be sold to a local refinery.