Modern Texas

Modern Texas* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Spindletop

An Industry Takes Shape

*Spanish explorer Luis de Moscoso found oil in Texas in July 1543 in Galveston Bay

*While stranded on the shore by Port Arthur, Moscoso and his men saw oil floating on the surface of the water

*They patched their leaky boats with the sticky slime

*People have used oil since ancient times

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Luis de Moscoso* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luis de Moscoso* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*Native Americans used natural tar to waterproof their baskets and pottery

*Sailors and workers used pitch and tar, made from oil, to seal boats and walls

*Oil greased machinery, axles and wheels

*It prevented animal products, such as leather, from drying out

*Petroleum is the oily liquid found in the upper strata of Earth

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*The modern oil industry traces its roots to August 1859

*Edwin Drake was a former railroad conductor hired to look for oil in Pennsylvania

*In Titusville, PA, he discovered oil below a layer of bedrock

*After the Civil War, Lyne Barret formed the Melrose Petroleum Oil Company

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Edwin Drake / Drake Well* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*Their efforts led to the first producing oil well in Texas

*It was located in Oil Springs, east of Nacogdoches

*It produced 10 barrels of oil a day*The market price for oil was low and Barret was unable to develop the field

*Other firms soon established 40 producing wells

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Lyne Barret / Oil Springs* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*In the 1890s, the Corsicana oil field in Navarro County produced large quantities of oil

*There was little demand for oil but Corsicana oil field created more interest in drilling for oil in Texas

*Joseph Cullinan came to Texas to help

*Workers laid pipes and built storage tanks and a refinery

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Joseph Cullinan/ Corsicana* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*By 1900, the Corsicana field produced more than 60,000 barrels of oil per year

*Rising prices and demand from the new gasoline-powered automobiles set the stage for something BIG

*In January 1901, that is exactly what happened….

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A Gusher Starts a Boom

*Pattilo Higgins ran a brick-making business in Beaumont during the 1880s

*He developed an interest in the use of oil and gas to power factories

*He bought land on Spindletop Hill, south of Beaumont, convinced that oil and gas were under the salt dome

*His early efforts to drill wells failed, but he was sure he was going to strike oil!

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Beaumont, Texas* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PatilloHiggins


*Higgins hired Anthony Lucas to help develop the land

*Lucas’s first efforts also failed*Lucas arranged for more financing*The new backers insisted that Higgins NOT be part of the deal

*They brought in Al and Kurt Hamill, two brothers that helped develop the Corsicana oil field

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*New drilling started in October 1900

*For months, the crew drilled into the ground but there was no sight of oil

*Many believed they had drilled a dry well

*On January 10, 1901, Spindletop began to shake

*The workers heard a rumble*Mud bubbled up from the hole

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*An explosion of oil shot up over 100 feet high!

*The Lucas Gusher shot out some 100,000 barrels of oil a day

*This was more oil than all the other wells in the United States combined!

*News of the gusher spread quickly*Oil workers, financiers and onlookers came from all over to see the gusher

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Lucas Gusher / Anthony Lucas* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*By the fall, oil flowed from six wells at Spindletop

*Within 2 years, Spindletop produced 17,500,000 barrels of oil

*As the number of wells grew, production declined

*By 1904, production fell to less than 4 million barrels

*In time, if fell even more…

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The Boom Changes Texas

*In 1900, Beaumont had 9,000 residents

*That number soared like the Lucas Gusher

*The population grew to 30,000*Land prices rose quickly*Along with engineers and bankers came speculators

*Some speculators bought land – then sold it days or hours later for a profit

*Others lost their investments

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*The oil boom also attracted wildcatters

*Wildcatters are oil seekers that took great risks by drilling in areas not known to have oil

*Wildcatters hired field hands, called roughnecks, to work their fields

*Many oil companies failed and others became giants in the industry

*Cullinan teamed up and formed Texaco

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Primary Source Quote

“We were pulling pipe, and the gas was coming out of the hole…We would work awhile ‘til we got as much of the poison as we could stand, then go away a few yards and breathe good air awhile, and then come back and go to work again. I had done this many times during the evening, and after awhile, on getting an extra strong dose, I started for air again. It happened that as I walked away, a little breeze blew the gas straight after me, and I drew in another breath or two. That proved too much. Consciousness left me, and over into the mud I went. When I came to, the well crew was carrying me out to safety.”

Charlie Jeffries

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*Driving the oil boom was another new business – the automobile industry

*In 1897, Ransom Olds produced the first Oldsmobile

*In the next few years, the other companies that built the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and Pontiac lines joined forces

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Ransom Olds / Oldsmobile* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*Henry Ford started Ford Motor Company in 1903

*Ford was extremely successful and made half the cars in the nation within 10 years

*Oil and auto industries helped each other

*The demand for cars increased the demand for gasoline

*In turn, a cheap and ample supply of fuel, increased the demand for cars

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Henry Ford / Ford Motor Co* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*The oil industry grew to meet the surging demand

*Pipelines transported oil from the fields to the refineries

*Cities grew up around the refineries and distribution centers

*Texas began to change from a rural to an urban state

*New jobs arose to support oil industry

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*In 1914, the Houston Ship Channel opened

*It connected Houston to the Gulf of Mexico

*Ships could sail directly from Houston to foreign markets

*More refineries opened since there were more ways of transporting Texas oil to the marketplace

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Houston Ship Channel* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Houston Ship Channel* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

More Discoveries Across Texas

*Wildcatters made many oil discoveries in the Gulf Coast area

*These included Sour Lake, Batson-Old, Humble, and Goose Creek fields

*Oil strikes also occurred in the Texas Panhandle and Permian Basin of W. Texas

*In 1930, C. M. “Dad” Joiner opened the world’s largest oilfield in Rusk County

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C. M. “Dad” Joiner* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


*Proceeds from the sale and leasing of oil fields funded the University of Texas, Texas A&M and other colleges

*The permanent University Fund has generated millions of dollars for education

*Taxes on oil companies are a prime source of revenue for Texas

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*The oil industry faced regulations before the first gushers

*There were more wells than refineries in Corsicana so workers could not process all of the oil produced

*Excess oil caused many problems such as fires and dirty groundwater

*Lawmakers imposed rules to regulate abandoned oil wells

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QUIZ

1. Which oil field is credited with creating more interest in drilling for oil in Texas?

A. Beaumont B. SpindletopC. Corsicana D. Titusville

2. What was the name given to field hands who worked in the oil fields?

A. wildcatters B. roughnecksC. speculators D. oilers

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Modern Texas