Spindletop

A discovery that changed Texas

forever

Examine these photos and respond to the questions in Part 1 of your student activity sheet.

Sittin’ on gold--black gold that isOil was discovered in Texas by Native Americans.

They found a black substance seeping from certain places in the earth.

They had several uses for oil such as waterproofing canoes.

However, the potential for this black substance went untapped until….

Anthony F. Lucas began drilling in salt dome deposits near Beaumont in October of 1900.

Texas was changed forever when Lucas hit a gusher at Spindletop in January,1901.

The Spindletop Oil Field and the oil beneath was a pleasant surprise for Texans.

News of the gusher spread around the world.

New people and new industries came to Texas almost overnight.

How was Texas transformed?Your assignment is to learn more about this great discovery through document analysis. Read the instructions for Part 2 of you student activity sheet and complete the document analysis.

Spindletop ushered in the great oil boom in Texas.

Oil companies and wildcatters, or speculators willing to gamble and drill in places not known for oil, began drilling.

One such wildcatter was Columbus “Dad” Joiner.

Dad Joiner went broke several times drilling for oil until...

he struck gold in East Texas in 1930.

Joiner’s discovery became known as the East Texas Oil Field.In a little over 40 years, this field produced more than 4 billion barrels of oil.

It accounted for 1/10 of the oil produced in the United States.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.By the end of 1931, the East Texas field had 3,600 wells.

Only a couple of years later, the field had 26,000 wells.

Sounds good, but...

The rapid growth in oil production reduced the price of oil from

$1.10 a barrelto

10 cents a barrel

in a matter of a few months.

The boom was followed by a bust.

Regulation and discoveries in West Texas helped bring Texas out of this initial bust, but the boom/ bust cycle has continued through the years.

Today, petroleum is still key to the Texas economy.

Boom and Bust

However...

we have had to diversify our economy and develop other industries so that we are not totally dependent on oil.

Petrochemicals are chemicals or products made from oil and natural gas.

One such industry is the petrochemical industry.

In part 3 of this lesson you will be discovering more about petrochemical products. Your teacher will give you further instructions.