Looking Backward The Texas Oil Boom Sets the Stage for the Rockhounds

Petroleum, one of the oldest known of the natural Presources, was first discovered in Asia several thousand years before the Christian Era. Zoroaster, who captured Babylon about 2458 B.C., founded the early Persian religion of fire worship. These ancient Persians probably used the oil springs of Baku in their religious ceremonial fires. As late as the fifteenth century oil was known as "Babylonian pitch '" The word petroleum is derived from Latin "petra," rock, and "oleum," oil, and in the seventeenth century it was called "rockoil'" Until the eighteenth century "rock oil" was valued only for medicinal purposes and was highly recommended for such ailments as gout, rheumatism, indigestion, kidney trouble, palsy, consumption, and even ringworm.
Oil in TexasLong before the white man came to Texas, the Indians there had found oil seeping out of the ground and had used it for medicine, for tanning hides, for waterproofing fabrics, for caulking their boats, and as binder for war paints. However, the first recorded use of petroleum by the white man in America occurs in the log of the DeSoto expedition dated July 25, 1543. The tiny, rudely constructed boats used in this expedition were sailing along the Texas coast to Mexico when a storm hit them. Alvaro Fernandez, who referred to himself as the Gentleman of Elvas (Portugal), wrote an account of the expedition which was published in 1557 in Evora, Portugal. He wrote: "The vessels came together in a creek where lay the two brigantines that preceded them. Finding a scum the sea cast up, called copee, which is like pitch and used instead on shipping where that is not to be had, they payed the bottoms of their vessels with it." According to nautical experts, the spot mentioned was about three and five-tenths miles west of Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas.
The Start of the Petroleum Era in the 1850sThree hundred years later, in 1857, Frederick Law Olmstead, in "A Journey Through Texas," vividly described the sulphur springs and deposits of asphalt at Sour Lake where rude bathing houses were built over the soggy ground and summer visitors were guaranteed a cure for any and all diseases. Early drilling by spring pole produced a few gallons of heavy oil used for medicinal purposes. Although petroleum was used principally for medicinal purposes before the Civil War, Dr. B. E Shumard, State Geologist of Texas, in 1858 reported that at Sour Lake "the earth for some distance was so highly charged with bitumen as to be employed for purposes of illumination and to some extent as fuel."
The year 1859 marks the beginning of a new era in petroleum history-"the lamp and lubricating period." On August 27 the famous Drake well-called Drake's Folly by the skeptical-was brought in near Titusville, Pennsylvania. A well only 69 feet deep and pumping 20 barrels of oil a day changed the course of our civilization. A new industry was born.
Texas Oil Gushes in NacogdochesBut Texas, too, has a claim to being the birthplace of the oil industry. Early in 1859, Jack Graham dug a pit near a tar spring in Angelina County, and an abundant supply of oil came to the surface. Also in 1859, Lynis T. Barrett and his associates leased land and laid plans to drill near Nacogdoches, Texas. However, the Civil War interrupted his plans until 1866 when he drilled his first well, No. 1 Isaac C. Skillern, near Oil Spring, Nacogdoches County. When the auger reached 106 feet, oil, water and gas gushed to the top of the well. This well is believed to be the first "gusher" of not only Texas, but of the United States. And Lynis T. Barrett may well be considered the original pioneer. of the oil industry in Texas since his efforts brought in the first field. The Nacogdoches field has the distinction of being the oldest field in Texas and in 1941 had a produc- tion of eight barrels a day from forty wells. Nevertheless, Corsicana is generally conceded to be the birthplace of the Texas oil industry, for there the Magnolia Petroleum Company opened the first important oil field in Texas, October 15, 1895, with the first test at 1050 feet producing two and one-half barrels of oil per day. In 1896 five wells were already completed with a total yearly production of 1450 barrels of oil. Previously, here on the Gulf Coast, Savage Brothers drilled some shallow wells at Sour Lake in 1893 and in 1895 produced some heavy lubricating oil. In 1898 the first refinery, on the Gulf Coast was opened at Sour Lake for the manufacture of lubricating oil with a daily capacity of 100 barrels.
Back in 1890 when a few shallow wells at Nacogdoches produced in one year only 54 barrels of oil valued at $227, Patillo Higgins of Beaumont, Texas, had an unshaken belief that oil could be found three miles south of Beaumont at Spindletop, a mound rising about fifteen feet above the surrounding area. The origin of the name Spindletop is to be found in the field notes of Surveyor David Brown in January 1835. His record says: "The common corner of the James W. Bullock and the John A. Veatch surveys is situated on the banks of the marsh on the western bank of the River Neches. At the commencement set post and mound at the end of the marsh at the lower edge of the place known as Spindle Tops" This common corner is on the eastern side of Spindletop. Someone with imagination fancied the stumps of dead trees rising from the marsh resembled a spindle. The salt dome was first called Spindle Top.
Higgins, a keen field observer, had studied United States Geological Survey reports and other books on geology. He was convinced that the presence of gas seeps, mineralized waters, and mound-like elevations were of significance as indications of an oil field. So, in 1892 he "convinced George W. Carroll of the soundness of his reasoning," and on August 24 the Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company was organized. This was said to be the "first attempt in Texas to utilize geology in an effort to secure oil production." The first well was drilled in 1893 to 300 feet by W. B. Sharp, a water well contractor of Dallas, who later became organizer and president of the Producers Oil Company. Though showings of gas were encountered, the hole was abandoned. Because of these showings, several citizens of Beaumont became interested in the enterprise; however, the state geologist examined the area and decided there were no oil possibilities. Still Pat@lo Higgin's faith was unshakable.
A Most Important Place in HistoryLate in the 1890s Captain Anthony E Lucas, a mining engineer and geologist, came to Beaumont from Louisiana in search of sulphur and was persuaded by Higgins to drill for oil at Spindletop. Lucas drilled 600 feet and uncovered a quantity of oil, but quicksand in the hole ended his efforts and his cash account. He then sought financial aid in the East. Guffey and Galey of Pittsburgh decided to risk some money in Captain Lucas' second venture. In this second well "on January 10, 1901, the bit reached a depth of 1,100 feet. Without warning, the ground began to tremble. With a terrific roar some 300 feet of pipe weighing many tons hurtled from the hole and over the top of the derrick, to be fol- lowed by a column of black gold that geysered 100 feet into the air. Higgins's dreams, held so firmly for ten long years, had come true."
In his biographical sketch of Anthony F. Lucas in 1921, Alexander Deussen wrote, "This discovery by Lucas gave an enormous impetus to the oil industry and it marked the beginning of its expansion to the present gigantic proportions. It is safe to conclude that the Lucas discovery was second only in importance to the discovery by Drake in Pennsylvania in 1859, and when the history of oil is finally written the name of Lucas will occupy a most important place in this history."
The Texas oil boom was now started in earn