In the summer of 1894, an accidental discovery in Corsicana changed the course of the state’s history. Hired by the city to find water, a drilling contractor instead found an oilfield, and the first Texas oil boom began.
The American Oil & Gas Historical Society explains how that oil well — which produced less than three barrels a day — is considered “the first significant commercial oil discovery west of the Mississippi.”
According to the society’s website, the discovery changed Corsicana “from a sleepy agricultural town into a petroleum and industrial center. It launched industries, including service companies and manufacturers of the newly invented rotary drilling rig.”
Now, 127 years later, Corsicana celebrates the boom with its annual Derrick Days event. Even though Corsicana’s wasn’t the first oil well in Texas, its discovery helped establish the exploration and production industry in the state.
By 1897, Texas’ first oil refinery was built in Corsicana and, within a year, some 287 wells were documented in the city. A few years later, the city of Beaumont joined Corsicana in the oil boom, when, on January 10, 1901, “an enormous geyser of oil exploded from a drilling site at Spindletop Hill,” according to www.history.com.
This gusher reached more than 150 feet and produced nearly 10,000 barrels a day making it more powerful than any geyser in the world. “A booming oil industry soon grew up around the oil field at Spindletop, and many of the major oil companies in America, including Gulf Oil, Texaco and Exxon, can trace their origins there,” history.com explains.
As a result of Spindletop, Texas oil production dramatically increased, with the former small town now responsible for 94 percent of the state’s oil. Offshore drilling began in Galveston in 1908, while counties such as Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Eastland and Limestone also struck oil.
The Panhandle added significant discoveries in 1921, joined by Caldwell County in 1922. Then Spindletop made a comeback in 1925 outdoing production of its original field. Other East Texas counties followed suit. After that time, according to the Texas Almanac, “The most significant subsequent oil discoveries in Texas were those in West Texas.”
Prior to Texas’ oil boom, Standard Oil Company of Pennsylvania — owned by John D. Rockefeller — monopolized the country’s oil and gas supply. Corsicana and Spindletop, however, brought independent oil contractors, known as “wildcatters” to Texas. Farmers left their land and joined the oil mix, graduating to “roughneck” status. This influx led to shanty towns with unhealthy environments and questionable business practices, as some tried to make a buck off desperate diggers.
“Gas hung in the air for miles around an oil town. It was nauseating when you could smell it, and dangerous when you couldn’t. Gas blindness or even gas-induced death was a daily gamble for workers on the seeping rigs,” the Bullock Museum describes in its history of Texas. “There was also no shortage of gambling and fisticuffs in the ratty saloons. Things got so bad in one Texas boom town that Governor Moody sent the Texas Rangers to settle things down. Safe drinking water was nowhere and dysentery was everywhere. In short, a boomtown wasn’t a healthy place to call home for very long.”
Despite significant hardships, the oil boom was an economic windfall for Texas, to say the least. Oil men made big bucks, which they, in turn, funneled back into the state’s education and culture.
The Texas oil boom began drawing to a close mid-century. The awe-inspiring “black gold” gushers were replaced by reduced but steady production of petroleum products.
The state would see its second oil boom with natural gas in the early 2000s, and the word “fracking” became part of the state’s vocabulary. High-powered injection of water into underground areas to open fissures and extract oil or gas helped tap into vast natural resources.
Today, Texas oil remains a significant part of the nation’s economy, with roughnecks still working the rigs and wildcatters still hunting that sweet “Texas tea.” From the discovery of oil in Corsicana to the geyser at Spindletop, the oil boom changed Texas and the prosperity of the state and the nation unlike any other industry.
Sources:
1. aoghs.org
2. www.history.com
3. texasalmanac.com
4. www.thestoryoftexas.com
Photo of Corsicana courtesy of the city of Corsicana, Texas.
Photo of Spindletop courtesy of the Texas Energy Museum.
Written by Angel Morris
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