Age of Oil Stations HISTORY

HOW DID OIL FORM:Oil is a fossil fuel. You may be wondering why oil had everyone excited in 1901. Well, oil is actually another word for petroleum. Pools of oil are located deep within the earth. Millions of years

ago, tiny sea creatures and plants died and fell to the bottom of the ocean floor. Layer on top of layer of this organic material collected and broke down. The high temperature of the rotting material, along with the pressure from the layers of rock and sand that covered it formed this

petroleum. .

WHAT WERE EARLY USES OF OIL:Oil has been known and used in Texas for hundreds of years, in ways very different from how we use oil today. Native Americans used oil for medicine, and Spanish explorers used oil found on Texas beaches to waterproof their boats.  However, oil wasn’t

seen as a profitable business opportunity until people learned in the late 1850s that petroleum could replace whale oil for lighting—and later to run factories, railroad and automobiles. Demand for oil increased as it became an ingredient in many medicines and

new inventions. Savvy businessmen realized that a lot of money could be made if they could find oil under the ground

Age of Oil Stations DISCOVERY OF OIL: SPINDLETOP

Anthony F. Lucas, Patillo Higgins, and John Galey were just some of the Texans who wanted to make a profit on this natural resource. Patillo Higgins lived near Beaumont in South Texas.  His family would meet regularly for picnics on Spindletop Hill, where there was always a strange gassy smell. He wondered if there might be oil under the hill. He, Lucas, and Galey had many unsuccessful attempts to find oil on Spindletop. However, on January 10, 1901 their hard work paid off. A blast of oil from one of their wells shot 150 feet in the air and took 9 days to control.  Oil in Texas had been found!

News of Spindletop spread quickly. The well was initially expected to produce 5 barrels of oil a day. Instead, it was producing 100,000 barrels per day, more than all the other oil wells in the United States combined. Thousands of people moved to Texas, trying to get rich in the new oil business. People came to drill oil wells, sell land and equipment, lay pipelines, and work in oil refineries. Beaumont’s population grew from about 10,000 to 50,000 people in a matter of months. It was a Texas oil rush!

Age of Oil Stations DISCOVERY OF OIL: PEOPLE & GRAPH

Who Were the Wildcatters, Roughnecks, and Roustabouts?These were the oil-field workers who flooded into Beaumont, Texas to work at Spindletop. Oil-field workers took on a job that was filled with excitement and danger. They got paid well for their work. In 1900, fifty cents a day was considered a good wage.

A wildcatter, who was an experienced worker, got from five dollars to ten dollars a day. A skilled helper called a roughneck, got a little less. A semi-skilled worker, known as a roustabout, was a little less paid. A "boll weevil" who was an inexperienced helper was paid two or three dollars a day.

These men were well aware that they faced death either from fire, gas fumes, or falling from the oil derrick. They worked hard and played hard. It was not unusual for fights to break out among the men when they went into town. It was said that someone was killed at the Log Cabin Saloon every Saturday night.

Age of Oil Stations DISCOVERY OF OIL: PEOPLE & GRAPH

Age of Oil Stations THE BOOMTOWN: BEAUMONT

HOW DID THE BOOM AFFECT BEAUMONT?Spindletop brought many changes to Beaumont and its surrounding areas. Before the gusher, only about 9,000 people were living in Beaumont. Within three months after the Lucas Gusher, the population had grown to 30,000 people. What brought all these people to Beaumont? People stuffed every dollar they had in a suitcase and headed for Beaumont in hopes of buying a piece of land near Spindletop, drilling their own oil well, and becoming rich.

Many problems occurred due to the rapid increase in the population in such a short period of time. First of all, there were not enough hotels and cafes to handle the enormous increase in population. People slept in tents, on pool tables. Grocery stores and restaurants stayed open 24 hours a day in order to feed all the people. Also, fresh water was scarce. At one point, a barrel of fresh

water sold for more than a barrel of oil!

Another problem that occurred was the lack of medical care. There were only a few doctors in Beaumont in 1901. Many people that came to Beaumont became ill because of unhealthy water, diseases caused by mosquitoes, and poor living conditions due to the crowds. In addition, the dangers of fire, explosion, and accident were always a major threat.

Age of Oil Stations THE BUST: DESDEMONA

AFTER THE OIL:Desdemona, Texas History in three Photos:There were thousands of photographs of Desdemona taken during the oil boom of 1916-1920, but these four photos visually tell a lot of the history of this town. Analyze the photos and answer the questions on your handout.

1916

Main Street in Desdemona looking east taken about 1916.The community at the time had only a few stores and a population of only 200 to 300 people. The utility poles are for telephone lines.  1919

In August 1919, at the height of the oil boom, Desdemona had been transformed from a village to a city estimated to have 15,000 people. During the boom the business district expanded first to the east and then north and south along what is now Hwy. 16 at the east end of town.  ________________________________________________________________________________1920

By mid-1920 the boom had gone bust and this photograph of Desdemona’s main street looking west was probably taken in the fall of 1920.

Age of Oil Stations OIL SOURCES

GRAPH

MAPS

SONG

Line 1 "Some folks went broke;Line 2 Some folks got rich;Line 3Poking holes in the ground;Line 4Out here in the sticks;Line 5That black gold was spewing way up in the sky;Line 6Spindletop blew into town; Line 7And Beaumont came to life!"