The Age of Oil

Into the New Century

• In 1900 and 1901, two events involving water and oil had an impact in Southeast Texas. These events marked the start of a new Era – Age of Oil.

OIL – TEXAS GOLD!

• Oil was discovered in 1900, only 100 miles from Galveston.

• Lyne T. Barret drilled the first well in Texas, a few miles from Nacogdoches.

Oil – Texas Gold—continued

• To process the crude oil, Joseph S. Cullinan built a refinery at Corsicana – the first one west of the Mississippi River.

• He pioneered using natural gas to heat homes, provide lighting, and to power locomotives.

Spindletop – the First Gusher

• On Jan 10, 1901 – at Spindletop, south of Beaumont, a gusher began shooting out 100,000 barrels of oil per day until it was capped 9 days later.

Spindletop – continued• Overnight, Beaumont

became transformed, as oil prospectors and drillers flocked to the small city.

• Oil companies like Texas Company (later TEXACO) began, and within a few months, Beaumont’s population grew from about 9,000 to over 50,000.

Oil Creates Texas Boomtowns

• Early boomtowns were noisy, dirty, crowded, and sometimes dangerous because some of the escaping gas fumes were deadly when inhaled.

• A new settlement near the refinery joined with Goose Creek and Pelly to become the prosperous Baytown.

Oil Creates Texas Boomtowns

• Other boomtowns included Humble! Oil was discovered here in 1904.

• The Humble Oil Company became the multinational corporation known as Exxon-Mobil.

Houston Benefits from Oil Discoveries

• Houston became the center of the oil business industry.

• Petroleum companies needed the banking, insurance, transportation, and legal services Houston could provide.

• On Sept 7, 1914 – the Houston Ship Channel opened which allowed large ships and barges into the port.

Lumber Booms in East Texas

• The oil boom in southeast Texas created a demand for products needed by oil companies – such as lumber to build the oil derricks and buildings.

• The derricks—high towers that held the drilling equipment—were made of wood.

Lumber in East Texas

• Lumber operations created thousands of acres of deforested land, which some people believed should be converted into farmland.

• Others, such as conservationists like W. Goodrich Jones urged replanting of pine trees for trees cut.

• Many Texas leaders urged the development of additional industries

• Brickmaking was a successful industry, which used local clay deposits to make high quality bricks.

Dallas Dominates Central Texas

• By 1900, Dallas became the major city of central Texas. It also became the leading retail (sold directly to consumer in small quantities) center of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

Dallas Dominates Central Texas

• It became a center for shipping and storing cotton and other goods, and for banking, insurance, and legal services. Overall, Dallas developed into a white-collar (jobs not demanding physical labor) city.

• The Neiman-Marcus department store was established in 1907, and Sears Roebuck, a Chicago mail-order company, chose Dallas as its southwestern distribution center.