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Spindletop: The Birth of Texas Oil Industry

Discover the fascinating history of the Spindletop oil discovery in Texas, which transformed the state's economy and led to the rise of the oil industry. Learn about the key players, the boomtowns, and the spin-off industries that emerged as a result.

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Spindletop: The Birth of Texas Oil Industry

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  1. SPINDLETOP NOTES 1894: Oil discovered at Corsicana

  2. An oil-burning locomotive John H. Galey Corsicana real estate developers convinced James. M. Guffey and John H. Galey of Pittsburgh (associates of millionaire Andrew W. Mellon) to come to Corsicana to help them exploit the region’s deposits of oil. By 1900, their Corsicana field was producing 836,000 barrels a year. In 1897, Corsicana’s town leaders convinced J.S. Cullinan of Pennsylvania to come to Corsicana found the first successful commercial refinery in Texas. The J.S. Cullinan Company later merged with two other firms to form the Magnolio Petroleum Company (later known as Mobil). As it expanded, the refinery needed new markets for its petroleum products, and Cullinan convinced the Cotton Belt Railroad in 1898 to run an experimental locomotive on steam created by an oil burner. Soon thereafter, most railroads began the switch from coal to oil-burning locomotives. (Calvert, De León & Cantrell, p. 245.)

  3. Patillo Higgins of Texas believed that the salt dome three miles south of Beaumont known as Spindletop would be a good site to drill for petroleum. Captain A.F. Lucas, a mining engineer, deduced from his work in Louisiana that Higgins was probably correct and decided to join him. (Calvert, De León & Cantrell, p. 245.) Patillo Higgins

  4. On January 10, 1901, Captain A. F Lucas, with financial backing from the Mellon interests, made the most important oil discovery in Texas history in Southeast Texas atSpindletop OIL!

  5. SPINDLETOP The blending of the technological expertise of the Hammill brothers of Corsicana and the money of the Mellon men tapped the Spindletop pool on January 10, 1901. For nine days Spindletop spewed oil unchecked, with between 70,000 and 100,000 barrels flowing from it daily. As word of the big strike spread, speculators of all stripes rushed to Beaumont. p. 245.

  6. “The boom that Spindletop triggered would ultimately see oil surpass both cattle and cotton to become the linchpin of Texas prosperity.” (Calvert, De León & Cantrell, p. 243.)

  7. FIRE! Spindletop, Texas oil fire.Spindletop was the location of the first Texas oil well.

  8. --The oil boom in Texas caused sudden and tremendous growth in Texas--As drilling increased, boomtowns sprang up around successful wells.--Beaumont’s population grew from 10,000 to 50,000 in just a few months.--Houston grew as the demand for oil increased (555%). Most new oil companies moved their business offices to Houston because it was a larger city with much better rail connections.--Oil caused the more changes than any other industry in the economic development of East Texas in the early 1900s.

  9. Oil Created Many Spin-off Industries Oil-related spin-off industries: refineries, pipelines, asphalt, tank cars, ocean-going tankers, harbors, machine shops, oil and gas lawyers, petroleum engineering, petroleum geology, oil leasing, automobiles, roads paved, natural gas, petrochemicals

  10. Starting as early as 1898, some locomotives ran on oil instead of coal.

  11. Rotary drills and improved bits made deeper drilling possible and expanded the industry in 1926 to West Texas.

  12. “HogTown”—Desdemona, TX. Environmental problems: derricks too close together, fire, health hazards, water pollution. Voluntary standards ignored. After World War I, the Railroad Commission enforced regulation. Beaumont Saloon near Spindletop, 1901.

  13. By 1928, Texans owned 250,000 motor vehicles, and businesses that serviced these vehicles would become a major industry. (p. 248)

  14. Texas Oil Production: • 1896: 1,000 barrels • 1902: 21 million barrels • 1929: 293 million barrels Nineteenth-century Texans never dreamed that oil and the state would become permanently intertwined in myth and economics. They had considered themselves as cotton farmers and cattle ranchers, but Spindletop changed that, ushering Texas into the twentieth century with a bang and making the state ultimately different from its southern neighbors. The History of Texas, pp. 243-244.

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