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Spindle Top
This is the date that the great gusher erupted in the oil well being drilled at Spindletop, near Beaumont, by a mining engineer, Capt. A. F. Lucas. This was the first salt dome oil discovery, and thousands of barrels of oil flowed before the well could be capped. Spindletop created a sensation throughout the world and encouraged exploration and drilling in Texas that has continued since. -
Spindle Top
This was the first salt dome oil discovery, and thousands of barrels of oil flowed before the well could be capped. Spindletop created a sensation throughout the world and encouraged exploration and drilling in Texas that has continued since. -
Spindle Top
Texas oil production increased from 836,039 barrels in 1900 to 4,393,658 in 1901; and in 1902 Spindletop alone produced 17,421,000 barrels, or 94 percent of the state’s production. Prices dropped to 3 cents a barrel, an all-time low. -
Burkburnett Oil Field
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East Texas Field
The field soon was extended to Kilgore, Longview, and northward. The East Texas field brought overproduction and a rapid sinking of the price. Private attempts were made to prorate production, but without much success. -
East Texas Field
The East Texas field, biggest of them all, was discovered near Turnertown and Joinerville, Rusk County, by veteran wildcatter C. M. (Dad) Joiner in October 1930. The success of this well — drilled on land condemned many times by geologists of the major companies — was followed by the biggest leasing campaign in history. -
East Texas Field
On Aug. 17, 1931, Gov. Ross S. Sterling ordered the National Guard into the field, which he placed under martial law. This drastic action was taken after the Texas Railroad Commission had been enjoined from enforcing production restrictions. After the complete shutdown, the Texas Legislature enacted legal proration, the system of regulation still utilized. -
West Texas Field
The most significant subsequent oil discoveries in Texas were those in West Texas. In 1936, oil was discovered west of Lubbock in the Duggan Field in Cochran County. -
West Texas
Originally Duggan was thought to be one of two fields, it and the adjacent Slaughter Field, but in 1940 the Railroad Commission ruled that the two produced from one reservoir and called both areas Slaughter. The prolific Levelland Field, in Cochran and Hockley counties, was discovered in 1945. A discovery well in Scurry County on Nov. 21, 1948, was the first of several major developments in that region. Many of the leading Texas counties in minerals value are in that region.